When: Monday, January 18, 2021, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PMWhere: Online event
The International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) is delighted to host a conversation between Professors Richard Falk and David Whyte, 17.00 GMT, 18 January 2021, Zoom, chaired by Dr Alicia de la Cour Venning.
The discussion will consider the role of international law and civil society in responding to environmental harm and David’s recently published book, Ecocide: Kill the corporation before it kills us, which examines the role of corporations in the climate crisis:
We have reached the point of no return. The existential threat of climate change is now a reality. The world has never been more vulnerable. Yet corporations are already planning a life beyond this point. The business models of fossil fuel giants factor in continued profitability in a scenario of a five-degree increase in global temperature. An increase that will kill millions, if not billions. This is the shocking reality laid bare in David Whyte’s new, hard-hitting book. Ecocide makes clear the problem won't be solved by tinkering around the edges, instead it maps out a plan to end the corporation's death-watch over us. David’s book reveals how the corporation has risen to this position of near impunity and what we need to do to fix it.
David Whyte is Professor of Socio-legal Studies in the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool. His research and teaching focuses on the connections between law and corporate power. His recently published books include The Violence of Austerity (Pluto, 2017 ed. with Vickie Cooper), Corporate Human Rights Violations (Routledge, 2017 with Stefanie Khoury), and Ecocide (Manchester University Press, 2020). He has also written on the topic of Ecocide for Open Democracy and The Independent.
Richard Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice Emeritus, Princeton University, currently Research Fellow, Orfalea Center of Global Studies, UCSB, and Chair of Global Law, Queen Mary University London. In 1973 Richard drafted the Ecocide Convention, explicitly recognizing at the outset, "that man has consciously and unconsciously inflicted irreparable damage to the environment in times of war and peace.” Falk has been nominated annually for the Nobel Peace Prize ever since 2008.
Richard is Senior Vice President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; was UN Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine, 2008-2014; and directed a project on ‘Climate Change and Democracy’ under the auspices of the Orfalea Center at UCSB. Falk has served as a member of independent international commissions devoted to the public order of the oceans, Kosovo War, and the International Law Rights of Catalonia. He has also participated in several civil society tribunals dealing with issues of war/peace and individual accountability for upholding international law.
Other recently published books include: Revisiting the Vietnam War: Selected Writings and Interpretations of Richard Falk (edited by Stefan Andersson, 2017); Power Shift: On the New Global Order, London (2017); Palestine’s Horizon: Towards a Just Peace, London, Pluto (2017); Exploring Emergent Global Thresholds: Towards 2030 (edited with Manoranjan Mohanty and Victor Faessel) (2017).
**Please note this is an online event and all registrants will be sent joining instructions on the day of the event.