Scotsman Obituaries: Professor Alan Boyle, international lawyer and academic who pioneered environmental law

Outside his legal work, Alan Boyle loved taking to the air as a gliding instructor

Professor Alan Boyle was among the most influential international lawyers of his generation. Perhaps best known for his pioneering work on international environmental law, Alan’s interests were far wider and he preferred to be considered a general international lawyer, albeit with a particular expertise in environmental matters.

Alan Edward Boyle was born in Belfast on 28 March 1953, where he grew up with his parents and sister. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. While he would leave Northern Ireland after his schooling, he retained a deep interest in Northern Irish affairs throughout his life, contributing later in his legal career to debates about the Northern Ireland Protocol and the legality of the British government’s approach to this issue. This was just one of his contributions to UK constitutional debates of recent years, notably also writing, with James Crawford SC, a 2012 legal opinion for the UK Government on the international legal aspects of Scottish Independence.

Law was not his only passion. As a young man, Alan developed an interest in aeroplanes. Though he did not pursue his youthful ambition to join the Royal Air Force, he did take to the skies as a glider pilot, and subsequently as a gliding instructor. In this latter role, he helped a younger generation of air cadets to fulfil their own ambitions to join the service. Professionally, however, he substituted a pilot’s goggles and helmet, first for the wig and gown of the English bar, and thereafter for academic robes.

Alan had left Northern Ireland in 1972 to take up a place at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he read law, graduating from the MA in 1975 and the BCL a year later. His next step was a pupillage at the commercial bar in London, although his initial stint as a barrister was short-lived and he never actually appeared before an English court. One reason for not pursuing this route was a debilitating stammer, with which had suffered since he was young. Later in life he managed to overcome this impediment, but in these early stages of his career he sought to develop his interest in the law in ways that relied more on his attention to detail and analytical rigour than his ability to verbally spar in a courtroom. Thus, Alan turned to academia.

Having briefly taught at Oxford, he successfully applied for a lectureship at the Faculty of Law at Queen Mary College, University of London. It was at this point that his interest in international law truly developed. Along with Patricia Birnie, who had joined the London School of Economics in 1983, Alan created a new LLM course on international environmental law. Co-teaching this subject allowed the pair to develop the ideas which would form the basis for their later co-written book. Alan often recalled how the general editor at Oxford University Press had been sceptical of their proposed title of “International Environmental Law”, as this was not then widely recognised as a field of international law. As a compromise, the book was published under the title “International Law and the Environment”. Yet, the book was timely, coming as it did in the year of the Rio Conference on Environment and Development, which would spur a growth of interest in the subject. The first edition was dedicated to “past, present, and future generations of our students” and there is little doubt that the book, through its successive editions, has had an immense influence. Now in its fourth edition, the book has become a pillar of international environmental legal education, now a mainstream topic in law schools around the world.

Alan moved away from London in 1995 to take up the new Chair of Public International Law at the University of Edinburgh. Here he continued his teaching of international environmental law, as well as more general teaching on the LLB and LLM degrees. He took up the general editorship of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly from 1998 to 2006, cementing his place as a leading figure in the UK international law community. It was also during this time that he resumed legal practice through advising and representing governments in international disputes.

While he once described his first steps into international litigation as a matter of luck, his reputation as a first-class litigator grew and Alan became a regular figure in hearings at the ICJ, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration, a testament not only to his advocacy skills, but to his determination and success in overcoming the stammer that had stalled his earlier efforts to enter the legal profession. In 2011, Alan was awarded the Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy for his outstanding and sustained contribution to environmental law.

This practical experience of international litigation fed back into his academic work and teaching, with tales from his latest case often livening up seminars. Alan was always a highly popular teacher and, throughout his career, was a true supporter of countless young researchers. Alan was always curious and enjoyed challenging existing views, and being challenged himself, as the purpose was never to be right, but to get to the right answer. Students and colleagues alike will remember even short conversations with Alan that really influenced their thinking.

Neither his retirement from the University of Edinburgh in 2017, nor the onset of serious illness in 2020 stopped Alan from contributing to the development of the field. In particular, Alan supported the negotiation of the 2021 Agreement for the Establishment of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, which led to the request for an advisory opinion from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in late 2022. Even though he was not able to personally participate due to illness, Alan’s work has been cited extensively in these proceedings to date, demonstrating his enduring influence in the area. He leaves a giant legacy in international legal scholarship, which will continue to inspire generations to come.

Alan Boyle passed away, aged 70, at his home in Perthshire on 14 September 2023. He had been diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme in June 2020. He is survived by his wife Caroline.

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