confronting the climate emergency and environmental challenges.
Ecological emergencies, including climate change and biodiversity loss, are among the defining challenges of our era. At the Center, we tackle these threats head-on, developing and applying approaches that take seriously the unprecedented nature of these issues.
Given the complexity of these challenges, we incorporate insights and practices from across a range of disciplines to advance the academic research, professional training, and capacity-building needed to cohere and accelerate the field of legal practice dedicated to these enormous challenges. Our work, moreover, is oriented towards the past, present, and future: we work to secure reparations and redress for environmental harms while also promoting environmental justice for present and future generations.
In particular, our legal advocacy and strategic litigation seeks to accelerate action on environmental emergencies in the limited time remaining to avert the most catastrophic scenarios of degradation. This means holding extractive industries and corporations accountable for their contributions to these environmental emergencies as well as other human rights abuses. We also emphasize collaborative action with those on the frontlines of impacts and environmental defense. This includes extensive work with Indigenous communities to safeguard their rights and the integrity of their territories, which is essential to securing global justice as well as a livable planet.
training the next generation of human rights advocates.
Through our dedicated legal clinics, we work closely with a range of partners from the Global South and North, including research centers, scientists, human rights and environmental NGOs, Indigenous communities, rural communities, and social movements.
The Earth Rights Research & Action
The Earth Rights Research & Action (TERRA NYU Law) Clinic trains law students for careers at the intersection of human rights and environmental justice, providing them with an opportunity to work closely with partners on legal actions and litigation designed to tackle ongoing ecological emergencies.
For years, the Global Justice Clinic has pursued legal advocacy and action at the forefront of global justice, training law students to address the complexities of the challenges at the heart of the international human rights project.
the earth rights research & action projects
Project
Climate Law Accelerator (CLX)
CLX is a global collaborative hub that seeks to catalyze the legal strategies, tools, and ideas needed to secure urgent and ambitious climate action.
Project
More Than Human Rights Life (MOTH) Project
The MOTH Project is an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to advancing the rights and well-being of humans, non-humans, and the web of life that sustains us all.
Project
Right to a Healthy Environment (R2HE)
In collaboration with partners like the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), this initiative documents and analyzes trends and developments in the implementation of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
Project
Indigenous Voices: Crossing The River Podcast
In the Crossing the River Podcast, produced jointly by TERRA NYU Law and Colombia-based 070, we hear from Indigenous leaders in their own words, because they are the protagonists of their own stories. The podcast examines Indigenous ideas, perspectives, and proposals on a range of topics, including resistance to extractive industries, new paradigms for governance, and proposals for legal and political action.
Project
Biodiversity & Rights
Through this line of work, TERRA NYU Law produces research and publications on the link between biodiversity and rights and also runs legal workshops with partners to devise and pursue legal actions and advocacy that protect the diversity of life underpinning ecological health.
global justice clinic projects
Project
Climate Justice and Reparations
In this Initiative, GJC works closely with Caribbean social movements, particularly in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, to advance social justice and bolster rights protection.
Project
Mining Justice and Self-Determination
This Initiative comprises a longstanding partnership between GJC and Haiti-based organizations and focuses on safeguarding the rights of vulnerable communities while also promoting transparency in mining.
Project
Indigenous Land Rights and Earth Defense
In this project, GJC partners with local communities and grassroots organizations to defend land rights, prevent human rights abuses, and seek accountability for the forms of environmental degradation that harm human and planetary well-being.
