Ben Christman

- The Northern Ireland Department of Justice proposed a number of changes to the Northern Ireland protective costs orders rules in a February 2016 consultation.
-The proposals mirrored a similar consultation in England and Wales – they were regressive from an access to justice perspective and would have worsened a pre-existing position of noncompliance with Article 9 of the Aarhus Convention.
- Following a number of consultation responses opposing the proposals, the Department has reversed its position and now intends to proceed with changes which may improve the position of environmental litigants in NI.
- Contrast the position in England and Wales, where the Ministry of Justice’s equivalent consultation response indicates a similar opposition from consultees, yet a determination to proceed with the general direction of change regardless.
- This raises a number of issues concerning devolution and further divergence of the position of environmental litigants in NI (and Scotland)
versus those in England and Wales.
- Ultimately the Northern Irish proposals are insufficient to meet the requirements of the Aarhus Convention.

This report, written for the Law Centre NI, sets out the evidence on the treatment of gay persons in Somalia.

It sustains the claim that gay persons from Somalia seeking asylum on the basis of persecution due to their sexual orientation should not be returned to Somalia, and that they should be granted refugee status.

Asylum claims for gay Somalians are supported by seven findings in the report:

(a) Somalian law criminalises homosexuality and gay persons are given no legal protection from either discrimination or hate crimes. The provisions on gay persons in Somalian law constitute state-sanctioned homophobia. Somalia’s criminalisation of sexual activity between consenting adults is a clear violation of international human rights law.

(b) Al-Shabaab subscribe to, and enforce a strict interpretation of Shariah Law. Shariah law explicitly outlaws homosexuality. The punishment for those ‘found guilty’ is at a judge’s discretion – and may be punished by death. This puts gay persons at particular risk in the parts of Somalia which are still under Al-Shabaab’s control (this includes much of Southern and Central Somalia).

(c) The death penalty is used as a punishment for individuals who are ‘found guilty’ of engaging in consensual, same-sex sexual relations in Somalia.

(d) UN and UK guidance recommends that gay persons are at particular risk with regards to returns to Somalia - they constitute a ‘risk profile’ which may require them needing protection under the Refugee Convention.

(e) Sexual orientation is a taboo topic in Somalia and gay persons are stigmatised. Gay people cannot be open about their sexuality in Somalia without facing violence, threats to their life and even execution. The risks faced by gay persons in Somalia are compounded by the absence of legal provisions to prevent anti-gay hate crimes or discrimination.

(f) Somalian prison conditions are inhumane. A gay person who is prosecuted and imprisoned in Somalia will face treatment which falls well below ECHR Article 3 standards and United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

(g) IDP camp conditions in Somalia are also inhumane. The UK Country Information Guidance report for Somalia recognises that persons living in IDP camps in Somalia face a real risk of being exposed to treatment in breach of Article 3 due to the humanitarian conditions there.

... generations: environment discourses, international law and climate change Peter Lawrence, 2. The journey of environmental justice through public and international law Brad Jessup, 3 ... Australia and its approach to international and public climate law Owen Cordes-Holland, 13. ...

Short case comment discussing the January 2015 'Christian Institute' decision of the Outer House of the Court of Session.

Discusses the negative implications of the decision for standing for judicial review and public interest ligitation in Scotland. It argues that the decision may serve to restrict the Scottish standing test and serves as an example of the Scottish judiciary's tendency to inappropriately apply private law concepts in public law adjudication.

Legal rights without any means of vindication are easily neglected; effective access to justice is a fundamental requirement of a legal system which guarantees rights. In terms of environmental law, the Aarhus Convention seeks to establish ‘access to environmental justice’ for citizens as a means of improving the general enforcement of environmental law, and ensuring the realisation of rights to environmental information and participation in environmental decision-making.

This article examines whether Scotland complies with two particularly challenging requirements of the Aarhus Convention: that members of the public have standing to access procedures allowing them to challenge acts or omissions which contravene national environmental laws; and that such procedures are not ‘prohibitively expensive’.

It finds that Scotland complies with the standing requirement thanks to recent common law developments, but that the costs of environmental litigation in Scotland are prohibitively expensive. The article offers a remedial suggestion for Aarhus-compliance, and suggests a range of further methods which could be used to take an exemplary approach to access to environmental justice in Scotland.

Short blog post focussing on the relationship between fuel poverty and human rights (particularly novel rights). It discusses the concept of a human right of access to energy services, and analyses a proposal for a UK 'Energy Bill of Rights' in terms of its feasibility and potential for tackling fuel poverty.

Climate justice can mean many things – broadly, it captures the understanding that the effects of climate change are being felt most strongly by those least responsible, and that solutions to climate change must be ‘just’. However, there is no settled definition and its implications for policy are as yet unestablished.

In March 2012 the Scottish Parliament passed a motion strongly endorsing the opportunity for Scotland to ‘champion climate justice’. Scotland is the first country to do so, and climate justice is now Scottish Government policy.

However, the version of climate justice adopted by the Scottish Government is one of a ‘human rights based approach’ to climate change. This has been influenced by Irish NGO, the ‘Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice’, whose approach to climate justice can be summarised as one of climate change strategy + human rights = climate justice. This ‘Mary Robinson Formula for Climate Justice’ is increasingly accepted internationally as the meaning of climate justice for use in policy-making. It offers the potential to re-orientate and re-politicise the climate debate, providing an ethical yardstick against which to measure and aim climate policies.

This paper seeks to critique the Mary Robinson Formula – particularly as applied in Scotland. Namely, it neglects the history of the climate problem; it represents an anthropocentric and individualistic agenda which may be at odds with effective climate policies and richer understandings of climate justice, it is dependent upon a hitherto non-existent ‘human rights culture’ and carries risks of strengthening dominant sections of society (particularly lawyers).

Energy poverty (roughly defined as the inability to keep the home warm at an adequate cost) is a growing problem across the EU - despite this, the EU energy-climate acquis shows a concerning neglect for the social dimension of energy governance.
This paper examines the concept of energy poverty; considering the evidence on the definition, causes, impacts and extent of energy poverty in the EU. It then asks how the energy-climate acquis is currently being used to tackle energy poverty, scrutinising the obligations imposed on member states to tackle energy poverty in the major energy directives (IME3, energy efficiency and energy performance of buildings). Concluding that EU action to tackle energy poverty is at an embryonic stage, it makes several suggestions for reform.