About this Event
The Human Rights Lawyers Association
and Legal Voices for the Future present
Storytelling as Legal Method
in collaboration with the International Law & Affairs Centre at City Law School
How does storytelling shape the way legal teams understand, develop and argue a case?
Climate litigation requires legal teams to process complex scientific evidence, lived experience, future harms and legal doctrine into coherent arguments capable of being understood and tested, often through many levels of courts, across jurisdictions and over many years. It is therefore an especially rich area in which to explore storytelling, not simply as a means of persuasion or public engagement, but as an essential element of legal practice itself.
This interactive workshop brings together different perspectives on how narrative operates within climate litigation, including:
Sarah Finch – claimant in the landmark Finch v Surrey County Council litigation
Estelle Dehon OBE KC – public law barrister, represented Sarah Finch and the Weald Action Group before the Supreme Court.
Kayle Crosson – Strategic Communications Officer at ClientEarth
Chaired by J Spooner – professional storyteller turned climate law researcher
From conversation to practice
The first part of the workshop will be a structured conversation exploring how storytelling works within legal practice. Drawing on their different experiences and perspectives, our contributors will consider how evidence, lived experience, legal argument, communications and narrative interact in the development of climate litigation.
The second part will put those ideas into practice.
Working together on a fictional climate litigation problem, participants will explore some of the strategic, evidential, communications and narrative decisions involved in building and sustaining a case. Our contributors will work alongside participants as they develop their approach, bringing perspectives from litigation, campaigning, communications and storytelling into the exercise.
The workshop is particularly aimed at early-career lawyers, campaigners and those considering a move into human rights practice, offering an opportunity to experience the collaborative, creative and interdisciplinary nature of climate litigation and engage directly with practitioners working across different aspects of the field.
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Event venue & nearby stays
The City Law School, Northampton Square, London, United Kingdom
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