When Trinidadian attorney Justin Sobion signed up for an environmental law class while pursuing a law degree in the 90s, the reaction from acquaintances was dismissive. “I remember it was maybe about six of us in the class in Cave Hill [The University of the West Indies],” he said during a Zoom interview with Caribbean Beat. “Everybody was like, ‘You want to be a green lawyer? Green lawyers don’t earn any money. What are you all doing?’”
Decades later, with increasing numbers of environmental cases being brought before judges — and with the world’s top judicial body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), siding with countries most vulnerable to climate change in a landmark advisory opinion delivered last July — attitudes have changed.
“You wouldn’t believe how many young attorneys have emailed or texted, or who I met at a conference. They’re saying, ‘We read about this ICJ case, we want to get involved, we want to offer our services, we want to know more about environmental law,’” said Sobion, Caribbean coordinator for the ICJ effort. He was also legal representative for Grenada and St Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG).
More than 90 countries were involved, sending in written statements and presenting oral arguments last December before the 15 ICJ judges at The Hague. It was the ICJ’s biggest case in terms of participation — and the first time the court took on the issue of climate change.
“Even at universities here, where I’m teaching as well, a lot of younger students are now becoming more and more involved in environmental law,” said Sobion, a lecturer at the University of Auckland (UoA) in New Zealand.
The various upheavals in the world affecting masses of people have increased interest in areas of the law that seek to protect groups and countries from the behaviour of other countries. “If you’re a lawyer, I think human rights and climate change are the two real cutting-edge issues that you could get into,” said Sobion.
With COP30 — the annual inter-governmental climate change conference — due to take place in Brazil in November, and environmentalists and leaders of vulnerable countries frustrated at how little progress has been made in achieving agreed-upon goals, more countries and groups are turning to litigation.
A United Nations (UN) report found there were 2,180 court cases related to climate change in 2022. That’s up from 884 in 2017.
In 2021, a Dutch court ruled in favour of environmental groups in their lawsuit against the Shell oil and gas company, ordering the conglomerate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — the fossil fuel byproduct that is the main cause of climate change — by 45% by 2030. The judgement was overturned upon appeal, but the court said the company still had an obligation to reduce emissions, even though specific dates and levels couldn’t be imposed.
From the Caribbean, municipalities in Puerto Rico are suing oil companies in United States courts for the damage caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. A group of Bonaire citizens is suing the Netherlands in the Dutch courts for not doing enough to fight climate change.
At the regional level, last year the European Court of Human Rights found Switzerland had to do more about climate change. And the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a UN body, found member countries were obligated to safeguard the ocean from greenhouse gas emissions.
The ICJ said that failure to live up to climate change agreements constituted a “wrongful act” and infringed on human rights
The ICJ, in its advisory opinion (which isn’t legally binding), said that failure to live up to climate change agreements constituted a “wrongful act” and infringed on human rights. Affected countries — which include small island states threatened with extinction in the long term due to rising sea levels, and economic hardship in the short term from damage caused by more powerful storms and the loss of tourist attractions like coral reefs — were entitled to compensation from the main polluters, the court stated in a rare unanimous conclusion.
“We got more than we bargained for,” said Sobion. “And I think that shows a lot for the dire state of the climate.”
The astonishing outcome started in 2019 with a group of law students at The University of the South Pacific. The students approached Vanuatu, an island chain in the region, about taking the request for the advisory opinion to the UN General Assembly. When the request was put before the assembly in 2023, it was the first time the body voted unanimously to have the ICJ take up a case.
Sobion was working on his doctoral thesis at the New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law at the UoA in 2020. The topic was states’ obligation to hold the planet in trust for future generations. The co-chair of the centre thought the theme was in line with what the South Pacific group was doing, and approached him about the possibility of working with them.
Sobion was well-connected in the Caribbean. He went to law school with the Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, and his late father — Keith Sobion — was a renowned attorney in the region, serving as the attorney general of Trinidad & Tobago (1991–1995) and later as principal of the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica.
Sobion got nine CARICOM (Caribbean Community) countries and the Dominican Republic on board. Among the countries he wasn’t able to persuade: T&T. He spoke to Dr Keith Rowley, prime minister at the time, and other cabinet members to no avail. (Rowley served in government with Keith Sobion.)
“When I was first approached by the Pacific Island students to get Caribbean support, I quite naturally said, yes, for sure, we’ll get Trinidad & Tobago to support, because that’s where I have most of my” — he laughed — “familial connections, if you want to put it that way,” Sobion said.
All CARICOM member states nevertheless endorsed the effort, saying in a communique after a 2022 meeting: “Heads of Government indicated their support for Vanuatu in its pursuit of an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice.”
Sobion believes it’s a missed opportunity that the countries who didn’t directly participate might regret, given the historic nature of the case. It was the first time most of the countries had appeared before the court.
“If you had asked me when I got called to the bar, when I became a lawyer, if I would ever go to the ICJ, I’d be like, wow, that’s a real remote dream,” he said.
He thought about his father all through the experience. Keith Sobion encouraged his interest in environmental law, advising him to pursue environmental law and related courses while studying for his master’s in international law at the University of Cape Town.
After he finished his degree in 2007, the older Sobion invited his son to help him draft environmental laws for Grenada and SVG — the two countries Justin later represented at the ICJ. Keith Sobion died suddenly, and the team had to do the project without him.
“I think if he was alive…he would have been so proud,” said the younger Sobion.
The regional teams are deciding what to do next. Sobion thinks the ICJ opinion may well strengthen the hand of smaller countries at the upcoming COP negotiations, because now it’s been shown they could win if they litigate.
“It’s almost like blackmail, right?” Sobion said, laughing. “Under the ICJ opinion, they said if you continue with fossil fuel licences, subsidies, so on, it may amount to an international wrong. We can say we’re going to consider taking you to court to prohibit licences and subsidies and so on — unless we come to a negotiation on that.”