Panel 1: Climate Change Litigation in Australia

Professor Tina Soliman Hunter

Professor of Energy and Resources Law, Macquarie University; Director of Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Innovation and Transformation (CENRIT); and Professor of Earth Sciences, Biological Research Institute, Tomsk State University

Professor Tina Soliman Hunter is Professor of Energy and Resources Law at Macquarie University, teaching and researching in petroleum law (offshore petroleum law, Arctic resources law and unconventional gas law), the energy transition (particularly hydrogen and carbon sequestration) and pollution of the arctic (especially oil and microplastics). She is the University’s inaugural Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Innovation and Transformation (CENRIT) and has received academic qualifications in marine sediments and geology, political science, applied science, and law.

Professor Soliman Hunter is currently an Honorary Professor at the University of Eastern Finland, and a Visiting Professor at the Biological Research Institute, Tomsk State University, Russian Federation. Tina has undertaken teaching and research in numerous countries including the UK, Australia, Norway, Canada, Iceland, Greece, Finland, Russia, the USA, and the Philippines. She presently leads a multidisciplinary UK-Australia-Russia Consortium of Researchers and Experts in Northern Aquatic and Arctic Marine Ecosystems (CRENAME), investigating continental water bodies and seabed sediment contamination arising from oil spills and microplastics and the implications for legal reform.

Professor Benjamin J. Richardson

Professor of Environmental Law
University of Tasmania

Benjamin J. Richardson is a professor of environmental law at the Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania, whose scholarly interests include environmental history, legal philosophy and Indigenous peoples. He earlier worked for two decades in academic positions in Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands and England, including appointment as the Senior Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia.

His global recognition includes winning the Research Excellence Prize of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment Academic Network and the Senior Scholar Prize of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law.

Professor Richardson is active in a variety of community and professional groups, including the Tasmanian Independent Science Council and formerly the Australian Panel of Experts on Environmental Law.

Professor Justine Bell-James

Associate Professor of TC Beirne School of Law
University of Queensland

Justine Bell-James is an Associate Professor at the TC Beirne School of Law, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in environmental law.

Justine's current research focuses on legal mechanisms for protection of the coast under climate change, incorporating both human settlements and coastal ecosystems. She currently leads an ARC Discovery Project (2019-2022) considering how wetland ecosystem services can be integrated into legal frameworks. Her research also considers how climate change litigation can assist with the climate change problem, with a particular focus on domestic human rights law.

Dr Michelle Lim

Senior Lecturer and Lead, Center for Environmental Law Research Strategy, Macquarie University

Dr Michelle Lim's interdisciplinary scholarship occurs at the intersection between biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods. Dr Lim’s work focuses on futures-oriented biodiversity law research aimed at advancing equity and sustainability under conditions of unprecedented environmental change.

Dr Lim was a fellow on the Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Dr Lim was also an author of the IPBES/IPCC joint workshop report -the first ever collaboration between IPBES and the IPCC.

Dr Lim sits on the Editorial Board of the Australian Environment Review and the Advisory Board of Ambio. Dr Lim is also a Board Member of the National Environmental Law Association – Australia’s premier environmental law organisation.

Main campus

Balaclava Road
Macquarie University NSW 2109

City campus

Angel Place
Level 24, 123 Pitt Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Event Contact

arts.law-events@mq.edu.au

Acknowledgement of Country

Macquarie University is located on the land of the Wallumattagal clan of the Dharug people. We pay respects to the Elders and knowledge holders who have, and continue to share their wisdom and knowledges, nurturing and sustaining our environments, cultures and education.