Susan Ann Samuel

Profile

Susan is a PhD Researcher with the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds – her research focusing on Climate Politics. She is a lawyer in India with experiences of litigation, policy research, legal analysis and court work. She is a Priestley Climate Scholar in Priestley Centre for Climate Futures and student representative of UNFCCC Taske Force at University of Leeds. She serves as Fellowship Officer and Associate Fellow of the Center for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL), as a Rapporteur on Global Climate Litigation for Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law - Columbia Law School (here), is member of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission for Environmental Law (WCEL), Global Network of Human Rights and Environment (GNHRE) and a few other professional networks. She has previously worked in the District/Sessions Court, Thiruvananthapuram for nearly a year before travelling to the UK to do LLM in International Law with University of Edinburgh (2020-2021). Further, she worked as a legal intern with the UN OHCHR (Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights) in Cambodia, and UNOV/UNODC (United Nations Office in Vienna - UN Office on Drugs and Crimes) in Vienna.

Linkedin (Link) Twitter (Link) ORCID (Link)

Research interests

Susan’s research interests include climate politics, international human rights (with a specific focus on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights), sustainable development, and international norm dynamics. She is working on the Project – Towards A New International Normative Framework in Response to the Climate Crisis (Link) with Dr. Viktoria Spaiser, Prof. Richard Beardsworth, and Dr. Cristina Stefan, focusing on international normative change in response to climate crisis. 

Susan did her LLM in International Law—with a special focus to Human Rights; with Prof. Nehal Bhuta as a personal tutor. For her Masters’ dissertation, she focused on the topic 'Women’s Role in Climate Change Law: Exploring the Boundaries of International Environmental Law (Critical Analysis on Climate Litigation and Legislation in Global South)' under the supervision of Dr. Michael Hennessey Picard. The research was a comparative study of Global North and South taking the nations USA and India as case studies in climate litigation and legislation patterns, further analysing on the three fold activism – to streets, Courts and Parliament in Global South. 

Conference Papers:

• International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention 2025, Chicago; 2 March 2025 [upcoming] - Human Rights and Climate Change—A Normative Discourse on Litigation, Movements, and the UNFCCC Negotiations
• International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention 2025, Chicago; 4 March 2025 [upcoming] - Norms of the Past, Development and Applicability (Chair)
• International Law Weekend (ILW2024) in Emerging Voices Panel; October 24-26, 2024 – Diagnosis of International Law: Youth, Climate Litigation and Pursuit of Highest Ambition
• International Law Weekend (ILW2024) co-organizing mega-roundtable with Prof Michael Scharf (American Branch of International Law); October 24-26, 2024 [upcoming] – Recognition and Enforcement of the Human Right to a Healthy Environment: Parallel Proceedings in International Courts
• TERI School of Advanced Studies – Centre for Post Graduate Legal Studies, New Delhi, India (20 September 2024) Lecture – Climate Justice and Governance: Why the Youth in India Need to Care? 
• RINGO meeting at UN Climate Change Conference SB60, Bonn, Germany (8 June 2024); spoke on Receptivity of Climate Negotiations to the Global Norms of Climate Movements
• Official side-event during SB60 of UNFCCC, Bonn, Germany; Courage, Contributions and Compliance: Implementing Paris Agreement Climate Adaptation & Resilience Commitments (7 June 2024); speaking on ITLOS Advisory Opinion and UNFCCC Negotiations: The Role of Youth
• ISA (International Studies Association) 2024 San Francisco – Annual Conference; 2-6 April, 2024. Spoke on Recentering Relationality: A Normative Discourse on International Climate Negotiations
• ISA Global South Caucus, 15 December 2023 in Bangkok Thailand; spoke on The Role of Small Island Developing States: A Force to be Reckoned with in Climate Politics
• Climate Law and Governance Day 2023 – Symposium, in 5th December 2023, at COP28, Middlesex University, UAE – Advancing Courage, Contributions and Compliance through Climate Law and Policy Solutions
• Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research (KHK/GCR21), workshop on The Role of Climate Change in Exacerbating Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Women, 25 September 2023 in Duisburg, Germany; spoke on Ecofeminism in the Biodiversity-Climate Nexus
• IUCN AEL (Academy of Environmental Law) Colloquium 2023 in Jeonsuu, Finland on 1–4 August; Soft Power and Solidarity:Towards ‘Our’ Common Future and Beyond
• BISA (British International Studies Association) 2023 Conference in Glasgow on 21-23 June 2023; Unpacking The Right to A Healthy Environment in a Political-Legal Discourse: A ‘Bold Action’ for Climate Justice?
• ESIL (European Society of International Law) in Central European University, Vienna, Austria (12 - 13 May 2023) - ‘Greening’ International Law en Route to Agenda 2030: The Role of Youth in Enhancing the Soft Power of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (Link to the webinar)
• 12th Annual Conference, Cambridge International Law Journal on 24 to 25 April 2023 -The Tale of Two ‘-cides’ - Ecocide and Genocide: Why it matters in Climate Governance?
• IUCN WCEL spoke on the webinar (25 Jan 2023) - Advisory Opinions on Climate Change: Initiatives, Expectations and Possibilities (Link to webinar; and its report here)
• Biodiversity Law and Governance 2022 (10 December 2022) - Online during CBD COP15 in Montreal; discussant/speaker in Expert Panel on the Roundtable discussion: Genetic Information and Access and Benefit Sharing in the Nagoya Protocol. Spoke on - A Pact of Peace with Nature: Exploring the Legal Nexus of Human Rights and Nagoya Protocol (Link to the webinar)
• IUCN WCEL - International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL) at University of Oslo (3 - 6 October 2022); Was invited as a speaker and wrote the paper on - Reimagining the legal Vision of Environmental Rule of Law through Sarvodaya

Professional memberships/networks:

• Bar Council of Kerala, India
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission for Environmental Law (WCEL)
• Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL)
• Global Network on Human Rights and Environment (GNHRE) 
• Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law – Columbia Law School
• Climate Law and Governance Initiative (CLGI)
• European Society of International Law (ESIL)
• International Studies Association (ISA)
• American Branch of International Law Association (ABILA)

Publications:

Books/Edited Volumes:

• Climate Futures Across Disciplines: A Next Generation Approach (2025); co-Editing with Prof. Richard Beardsworth and Dr. Clare Martynski; Publishing by Routledge [Forthcoming]
• Climate Litigation and Vulnerabilities: Global South Perspectives (2024); co-Editing with Dr. Maria Antonia Tigre and Dr. Melanie Murcott; Publishing by Routledge [Forthcoming]​​​​​​
• Unseen Yet Seen (2018) (link) Non-academic book; Published by Open Doors Publication, India.

Book Chapters:

• Orchestrating Innovation for Climate Futures—The Next Generation Approach; co-authored with Prof. Richard Beardsworth and Dr. Clare Martynski; Publishing by Routledge [Forthcoming]
• Unpacking The Right to A Healthy Environment in a Political-Legal Discourse: A ‘Bold Action’ for Climate Futures? Publishing by Routledge [Forthcoming]
• Climate Litigation and Vulnerabilities: Global South Perspectives-Introduction; co-authored with Dr. Maria Antonia Tigre and Dr. Melanie Murcott; Publishing by Routledge [Forthcoming]
• Role of Small Island Developing States: A Force to be Reckoned with in Climate Politics. (ISA) Publishing by Palgrave Macmillan, New York, USA [Forthcoming]
• Climate Justice and Capabilities Approach – A TWAIL Discourse: Redefining the Fourth Environmental Era in The Fourth Environmental Era: Climate Justice edited by Sumudu Atapattu, Freya Doughty-Wagner & Enéas Xavier (eds)., Vernon Press, [Forthcoming]  SSRN 
• The Role of Advisory Opinions in International Law in the Context of the Climate Crisis – co-authored with Adv. Jorge Alejandro Carrillo Bañuelos; Hart Publishing [Forthcoming] 
• The Atmosphere and a Stable Climate System: Rules and Practices of International Law on Climate Change Action – co-authored with Dr. Maria Antonieta (Antoinette) Nestor and Adv. Maeve E McDermott. Publishing – Kluwer Volume on the Role of International Law on the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources [Forthcoming]

Journal Articles:

• “Bending the Curve” for NDC 3.0: The Need for Legal Innovation in the UNFCCC-CBD Nexus; co-authored with Prof. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Dr. Jellie Molino, Dr. Antoinette Nestor; Publishing by PLOS Climate (link)
• ‘Greening’ International Law en route to Agenda 2030: The Role of Youth in Enhancing the Soft Power of Climate Justice, (2023) Yearbook of International Environmental Law – Oxford University Press (link)
• Rawls' Cake and Climate Governance: Relevance of 'Our’ Common Future Today. Publishing by Carbon and Climate Law Review (CCLR) Special Issue “Climate Law and Litigation: Considerations of carbon neutrality, attribution and justice” (link)

Blog Posts:

• The Moana effect: how small island developing states are bringing their struggle against climate change to the world – The Conversation (link); reposted to MENAFN, EconoTimes, YahooNews, Island Innovation, Tolerance.ca and more. 
• Financing the Future — “For A Green World”: Baku’s call for climate solidarity [Published in Policy Leeds]
• Children and Climate Finance: A Matter of Intergenerational Trust [Published in Priestley Centre for Climate Future]
• Youth activists are now real agents of change at global climate summits (co-authored with Dr. Maria Antonieta Nestor) - The Conversation (Link); and re-posted to Down to Earth (Link), MENAFN - The Middle East North Africa Financial Network (Link), Irish Examiner (Link)
• Early Career Researchers in viewing the Kaleidoscope of Solidarity Rights for Climate Justice: Some Take-aways from COP28; [Published in GNHRE–Global Network of Human Rights and Environment website]
• The Right to A Healthy Environment: A Call Beyond Solidarity? [Published in Environmental Politics Journal website as guest post and republished in BISA]
• Exploring the Scope of Ecofeminism in the Biodiversity-Climate Nexus; [Published in Open Global Rights and cross-published in IUCN website]

Reports/Policy work:

• T20 Policy brief (Official thinktank of G20) - Role of G20 in Enhancing Women Entrepreneurship: Future-proofing Law and Governance for Climate Resilience (link)
• GNHRE comments for - CRC Draft General comment No. 26 - Children’s Rights and the Environment with a Special Focus on Cimate Change (find the comments here – link)
• Mainstreaming Human Rights in the Science-Policy Interface of Climate Action – Policy Brief by IUCN WCEL [Forthcoming]

Poster work:

• Empower the eco-anxious: what is the University doing to address eco-anxiety in young people? (link) Spearheading the work with Dr. Harriet Thew (poster work by 10 students in University of Leeds, and 4 Senior Academics) for UNFCCC’s poster session on ACE at the 60th session of subsidiary bodies. 

Qualifications

• Master of Laws (LL.M International Law) - University of Edinburgh
• Bachelor of Laws (BA LL.B 5 year integrated course) - Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram.