Legal Response Initiative

The Legal Response Initiative (LRI) is a pro bono initiative designed to assist and support least developed countries (LDCs) with legal advice and legal capacity-building services during U.N. climate change negotiations. It strives to establish equity between the wealthier countries that have better access to legal resources and LDPs that are burdened by limited legal resources and are also the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. LRI was launched in 2009 in a joint initiative between WWF-UK and Oxfam GB, and has successfully created a network of highly qualified international lawyers to provide rapid response to legal queries submitted by delegates from LDPs and NGOs during climate negotiations. Aside from its real-time assistance during climate negotiations, the LRI has begun to provide additional services between negotiations, producing legal papers and hosting legal training workshops.

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law is proud to partner with LRI and to serve as LRI’s North American hub by volunteering the expertise of its scholars and assisting the LRI to recruit legal advisors.

If you are interested in working with LRI, more information can be found here or by emailing one of the Sabin Center’s current fellows.

Briefing Papers

Sabin Center previously collaborated with the LRI to prepare a briefing paper on the consistency of a proposed International Air Passenger Adaptation Levy with international law.  The paper was prepared by Elizabeth Sheargold and Stephanie Chuffart of Sabin Center and Christoph Schwarte of the LRI.

All of the LRI’s briefing papers, which cover a range of important issues relating to LDCs and the U.N. Climate Negotiations, are available here.