Roman Abrashin Wins the 12th International Law in the 21st Century Award Competition

Roman Abrashin, a first-year Master's student in the International Trade Law and Dispute Resolution programme at the HSE Faculty of Law, has won the 12th International Law in the 21st Century Award Competition with his paper "How Do International Human Rights Bodies Address Climate Change? Are There Limits to the 'Green' Interpretation of International Human Rights Treaties?"

In his paper, Roman Abrashin argues that international human rights bodies have come to play an increasingly significant role in addressing climate change. One of the tools they employ is the systematic and evolutionary interpretation of international human rights treaties. At the same time, some human rights bodies appear to exceed the limits of their mandate by directly applying international climate treaties. The paper also notes that, in the context of the climate crisis, the dominant approach to environmental rights remains anthropocentric, focusing primarily on the "greening" of civil and political rights. By contrast, ecocentric and communitarian approaches are most clearly reflected in the African and Inter-American human rights systems. Roman concludes that, by adopting a balanced approach, international human rights bodies can potentially help address the existing gap in state accountability for action—or inaction—in combating climate change.

In addition to Roman Abrashin, the award has previously been presented to Alexey Petrenko and Adam Nalgiev from the School of International Law at the Faculty of Law.

We congratulate Roman on this achievement and wish him every success in his future academic research.