Episode 37: The ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Obligations: Remarkable, Radical and Robust
About this episode
The episode discusses the ICJ's advisory opinion on climate obligations and its implications for international law.
There were gasps in the courtroom when the ICJ delivered its advisory opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change on 23 July 2025. In this episode, Margaret Young (Melbourne Law School), Phoebe Okowa (Queen Mary University of London, member of the International Law Commission) and Lavanya Rajamani (Oxford) explore how, with its robust and at times radical reasoning, the Court has delivered a truly significant moment for international law. Scholarship referred to in the episode includes Phoebe N. Okowa, State Responsibility for Transboundary Air Pollution in International Law (2000); Lavanya Rajamani, ‘Interpreting the Paris Agreement in its Normative Environment’ (2024) 77 Current Legal Problems 167; Margaret A. Young, ‘Climate Change and Law: A Global Challenge for Legal Education’ (2021) 40 University of Queensland Law Journal 351; and Margaret A. Young, ‘Fragmentation’ in Lavanya Rajamani and Jacqueline Peel (eds), Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law (2021) 85.
More episodes of EJIL: The Podcast!
- Episode 43: Sudan—Does international law have anything to say?
- Episode 42: Russia, Imperial Continuities and Histories of International Law
- Episode 41: Reading Recommendations
- Episode 41: Thinking through Rupture in International Economic Law: Views from Latin America
- Episode 40: Palestinian Legal Frontiers: SC Res 2803 and beyond
- Episode 39: Holding the Line
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