[JURIST] Leading Monday's environmental law news, the eleventh session of the United Nations Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 11) [official website, live webcast] began today with the first session of the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 1) in Montreal, Canada. The meetings will be running from November 28 to December 9 with representatives from 189 countries and hundreds of scientists, environmentalists, and industry representatives in attendance. This is the first COP since the meeting that produced the Kyoto Protocol [text], the controversial pollution limitation plan. BBC News has more.

In other environmental law news

• An order approved by English Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers [BBC profile] will allow a case to proceed in an action brought by the families of 30 children who were born with birth defects against the Corby Borough Council [official website] of Northhamptonshire. The action claims that defects were caused when women that lived in the area during their pregnancies between 1985 and 1999 were exposed to contamination from the clean up of old industrial steel sites. They argue that the Borough Council was negligent in its management and execution of the clean up. The Independent has more.