Sustainability Law, Human Rights and Access to Climate Justice: Guest Lecture at the University of Oslo
The lecture held on 18 February 2026 connected the procedural safeguards of the Aarhus Convention with climate litigation, corporate accountability and European Union sustainable-business law.
Prof. Dr Mirjana Drenovak-Ivanović, full professor at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair in European Environmental and Climate Change Law, delivered a guest lecture at the University of Oslo Faculty of Law on 18 February 2026. The lecture, organised within the continuing academic cooperation with Prof. Dr Beate Sjåfjell, was entitled “Corporate Sustainability and Access to Climate Justice: A New Challenge in the Implementation of the Aarhus Convention”.
The lecture examined the development of sustainability law as a field connecting environmental law, human rights protection and the regulation of sustainable business. The sustainable transition was considered as a process of legal transformation requiring effective protection of environmental rights, a fair distribution of the burdens created by climate measures, and accountability of public and private actors.
Particular attention was given to the relevance of the Aarhus Convention for access to climate justice. Its three pillars — access to environmental information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice — were presented as procedural safeguards for reviewing the legality of environmentally significant decisions and establishing the accountability of states and companies. The lecture also addressed legal, financial and procedural barriers that may restrict judicial protection in environmental and climate cases.
The European Union law component covered legislation promoting transparency, emissions reduction and human rights protection in the fields of the circular economy, value chains, sustainability reporting and sustainable finance. Proceedings involving TotalEnergies and KLM were used to examine the application of consumer-protection and access-to-justice rules to corporate claims concerning climate neutrality and sustainability.
The climate-litigation component considered Urgenda v. the Netherlands, Notre Affaire à Tous and Others v. France and KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland, together with the 2025 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on states’ obligations in respect of climate change. The analysis addressed due diligence, the importance of scientific evidence and the protection of human rights from the consequences of insufficient climate action. Cases involving Shell, RWE and Holcim were also used to examine the possibilities and limits of civil liability for corporate contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions.
The lecture continued cooperation with the University of Oslo Faculty of Law that began with a guest lecture within the Corporate Sustainability Law course in February 2025 and was subsequently developed through a digital sustainability-law seminar in June and a lecture within the Sustainable Business, Finance and Circular Economy course in September 2025. This cooperation connects JMC EECL teaching and research with international academic exchange in environmental law, human rights, climate change and sustainability law.
