Between Heat and Hope

International Investment Law as an Obstacle to Climate Protection

The episode introduces the basics of international investment law, zooming in on Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), a system of dispute resolution which allows foreign investors to seek damages, amounting on average to several hundreds of millions of euros, against governments.

Wiebe delves into the history of ISDS, explaining how fossil fuel companies like Shell were actively involved in the creation and shaping of international investment law. Stephanie outlines the most common criticisms of ISDS, including the system's lack of transparency and its potential to create a...

Educating Climate Conscious Lawyers

Julia Dehm speaks about what it means to work, teach, and think as a lawyer in the midst of the climate crisis. Julia reflects on the relationship between theoretical research and real-world impact, the importance of collaborative and community-engaged scholarship, and the need to make climate change central rather than peripheral to legal education and legal practice. The conversation also explores how historical approaches can help lawyers better understand the structures that have produced ecological harm, while also opening space for more just and imaginative legal futures.

The episode further discusses...

Science and justice in climate litigation

In this episode of Between Heat and Hope, we are joined by Professor Joyeeta Gupta. Joyeeta Gupta is Professor of Environment and Development in the Global South at the University of Amsterdam and Professor at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. Her work sits at the intersection of climate law, earth system science, and environmental justice, with a particular focus on the Global South. She has been involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The conversation begins by unpacking the role and working methods of the Intergovernmental Panel...

The Indirect Impacts of Climate Litigation

In this episode of Between Heat and Hope we are joined by Professor César Rodriguez-Garavito. César Rodriguez-Garavito is Professor of Law at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law. He is the founding director of the More-Than-Human Life Program, the Earth Rights Research & Action Clinic, and the Commons on Machines, Policy, Automation & Society at NYU Law. His work focuses on international environmental law, Indigenous peoples’ rights, technology, and more-than-human rights. In 2025, Cesar published Climate Change on Trial: Mobilizing Human Rights Litigation to A...

Standing at the European Court of Human Rights

In this episode of Between Heat and Hope we are join by Professor Corina Heri. Corina Heri is Associate Professor of human rights and climate change at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Primary Investigator of the TEMPORALAW project. In this capacity she works on human rights law, climate change, the role of courts as well as the role of vulnerability in the law.

The conversation sets out discussing climate litigation before the European Court of Human Rights and particularly looks at different questions related to access to court...

A Law and Political Economy Approach to Climate Litigation

In this episode, Ioannis Kampourakis, Associate Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam and co-director of the Law and Political Economy (LPE) in Europe project joins Rena Hänel, PhD researcher at the University of Amsterdam, to talk about what is to be learned from applying a Law and Political Economy lens to climate litigation.

The episode begins with Ioannis describing the theoretical foundations of Law and Political Economy as a stream of legal scholarship that emphasizes the law as being constitutive of markets and the economy more g...

Corporations, Climate Change & Human Rights

For this episode of Between Heat and Hope we are joined by Professor Evelyne Schmid. Evelyne Schmid is a professor of international law at the University of Lausanne, where she is an expert in human rights. Her work focuses, among other things on corporate conduct and the safe and just operating space of humanity within the environment.

In this episode, we discuss with Evelyne the ongoing Swiss case of Asmania et al. brought by four plaintiffs from the Indonesian island of Pari against cement producer and major emitter Holcim. From...

Lawyering before the European Court of Human Rights

In this episode of Between Heat and Hope, Veronika Fikfak, professor of Human Rights and International Law at UCL, joins us to discuss the ‘European Human Rights Bar’, this is the network of lawyers that bring cases to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Having just completed an ERC Starting Grant and being about to start an ERC Consolidated Grant, Veronika has done extensive empirical work – both qualitative and quantitative – on the ECtHR. In this episode, she shares her great expertise on lawyering before the ECtHR and links it for u...

The Legal Strategy behind Greenpeace The Netherlands v Netherlands (Bonaire case)

In this third episode, Eefje de Kroon, Greenpeace The Netherlands’ Campaign Lead for Climate and Energy, speaks with Tessa Trapp, PhD Researcher at the University of Amsterdam, about the Bonaire Climate Case (Greenpeace The Netherlands v The Netherlands). The conversation begins with a brief overview of the Dutch court’s judgment pronounced on January 28, 2026, and the mitigation, adaptation, and non-discrimination obligations for the Dutch government. Eefje then expands on Greenpeace's advocacy and legal strategy relating to Bonaire, including on the special history, culture, and traditions, as well...

Greenpeace The Netherlands v Netherlands (Bonaire case)

In this second episode of Between Heat and Hope, Phillip Paiement, Professor of Law & Governance in the Anthropocene at Tilburg Law School, discusses the Bonaire case of 28 January 2026 with Christina Eckes, professor of European Law at the University of Amsterdam. The conversations covers the adaptation and mitigation aspects of the judgment.

In relation to adaptation, it draws out the particular situation of the residents of Bonaire as compared to the resident of the State of the Netherlands, reflects on the missed opportunity to engage more with the colonial...

10 Years of Climate Litigation

In this first episode of Between Heat and Hope, Simon Waswa, PhD researcher at the University of Amsterdam is joined by Dennis van Berkel, Legal Counsel of the Urgenda Foundation and Strategic Advisor at the Climate Litigation Network (CLN). The conversation begins by taking stock of CLN’s 10-year anniversary since the landmark Urgenda decision. This decision marked the first time a court ordered the State to do its part in the fight against climate change. The discussion then delves into the legal architecture that has been cumulatively built from the bottom up th...