“Teachers and students from both universities jointly developed a real climate justice case and reflected academically on their experience, in a publication that positions the legal clinics model as a tool for pedagogical and legal transformation.”
The team of the PUCP Environmental Law Clinic proudly shares the recent publication of the article “Transnational Legal Clinic Collaboration: A Force in Global Climate Litigation” in the renowned journal Transnational Environmental Law, edited by the University of Cambridge.
This article is the result of an international clinic collaboration process between PUCP (Peru) and McGill University (Canada), developed under the COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) approach. Students and professors from both universities participated actively in the process, who not only worked together on a real case of climate justice in Peru, but also co-designed legal strategies, analyzed complex contexts and critically reflected on the challenges of climate litigation at the transnational level, as well as on the transformative role of environmental legal clinics in this scenario.
The experience was structured in two complementary phases:
The article argues that transnational legal clinics, when based on horizontal, intercultural and engaged collaboration, can strengthen global climate litigation and amplify the voices of the Global South, articulating diverse legal frameworks and promoting transformative learning among students, teachers and communities. It also reflects on the practical challenges of sustaining such partnerships – such as institutional, normative and contextual differences – and highlights the importance of building relationships based on trust, mutual care and active listening.
Andrea Domínguez Noriega, professor Andrea Domínguez Noriega, and students Nadia Blas Rodríguez, Luis Alejandro Pebe Muñoz and Gianella Livia Riquero participated in this valuable initiative. From McGill University, the team was joined by professor Leanna Katz, and students Mees Brenninkmeijer, Oscar Bourgeois, Narain Yücel and Carla Arbeláez. The team was also joined by researcher Ilana Cohen (Harvard University), who enriched the approach from the perspective of global climate litigation and advocacy strategies.
This important achievement demonstrates how, from the real cases worked on in the classroom, legal clinics can project themselves into the international academic sphere, and at the same time strengthen professional training and commitment to environmental justice.
This publication represents concrete evidence of the transformative potential of environmental legal clinics: spaces where practical learning, legal advocacy, ethical reflection and the production of meaningful knowledge are intertwined. It is also a call to continue building alliances between universities of the Global South and the Global North, and to collectively rethink the teaching of law from the perspective of justice, territory and collaborative action.
📘Access to the full article here:
🔗 Transnational Legal Clinic Collaboration: A Force in Global Climate Litigation – Transnational Environmental Law, Cambridge University Press: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transnational-environmental-law/article/transnational-legal-clinic-collaboration-a-force-in-global-climate-litigation/5DBD6B335E263D8662D117588EA4B3C6
