If we fail our environment, we fail to protect out human rights.   Continue reading »

In recognition of Earth Day 2013 on Monday, April 22, the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner has released a statement warning of the potentially dire effects of failing to conserve the environment.  Continue reading »

GENEVA (7 March 2013) – The United Nations Independent Expert on human rights and environment and Wake Forest Law Professor John Knox highlighted the urgent need to clarify the human rights obligations linked to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Such clarification, he said, “is necessary in order for States and others to better understand what those obligations require and ensure that they are fully met, at every level from the local to the global,” according to a press release.

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Professor John Knox opened his Spring 2012 “Conversation With” with a disclaimer:  He thought his interview might seem lackluster, fresh off the law school’s recent “Conversation With” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. But listening to Knox elaborate on his impressive and extensive career, culminating in his most recent accolade, a United Nations appointment, it soon became apparent that Knox is anything but uninteresting. Continue reading »

Wake Forest Law Professor John Knox has been appointed as the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Independent Expert on Human Rights and the Environment.

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The Conversation with… Committee is pleased to announce its first event of the spring semester, “A Conversation With Professor John Knox.”  Continue reading »

Within days after hearing oral arguments on whether corporations can be sued for human rights violations under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) last month, the U.S. Supreme Court instructed the lawyers in the case to file a new round of briefs analyzing whether federal courts could serve as a forum in which alleged violations of international law took place outside the nation’s borders. Continue reading »

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ordered reargument in a major challenge involving lawsuits against corporations for human rights violations under the Alien Tort Statute. Continue reading »

Friday I attended the afternoon session of the UGA International Human Rights & Climate Change conference. The conference was cut short by Athens’ own version of Snowmaggedon (which mostly melted by noon the next day). Read the full story »

Christopher Monckton — a British hereditary peer and high-profile skeptic of both global warming and international agreements — caused a stir on Oct. 14, 2009, with a forceful denunciation of the upcoming international talks on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark, scheduled for Dec. 7-18, 2009. Read the full story »