• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

Climate Law

Module description

Climate change presents a significant social and existential challenge, and is interesting to study from a legal perspective to interrogate how law can be used to shape and enforce climate change mitigation, but to determine legal responses to changing social risks, and how lawyers can change their practices as climate conscious lawyers. What does it mean to say that climate change is a global problem dealt with locally? What is the meaning of the term climate justice, and does it mean the same thing in all contexts? What is the relationship between climate change and the law? How will climate issues affect our understanding of risk and responsibility, and what role does law play in this changing understanding? This module examines the various dimensions of climate law across agencies and levels of governance, seeking to answer these questions and more.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module will take you from the global response to climate change in international environmental agreements, discussing some core methodological and theoretical issues underlying it, such as the role of ‘science’, and core arguments about global justice. It shall examine core dimensions of climate change response, such as the law on climate mitigation, country-based climate adaptation, and finance and technologies. It will also examine regulation of climate change across levels of governance, such as in cities, and through alternative forms of governance, as in climate litigation.

The module is suitable for students with an interest in environmental law, but will also be beneficial and interesting in relation to human rights, justice or migration studies, or indeed any students who wish to think about how climate change may affect law over the coming decades.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the selected issues on climate change considered in the module and a substantial range of major concepts, values and principles relevant to its application;
• 2. Demonstrate critical awareness of theoretical issues in climate law;
• 3. Demonstrate critical awareness of a wide range of legal, political, social and contextual implications of the areas of climate change studied;

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Define complex legal problems, identify their relative significance and select appropriate methods for investigating and critically evaluating them;
• 5. Integrate and assess information from primary and secondary legal sources using appropriate interpretative techniques;
• 6. Critically assess regulatory instruments and policy in terms in accordance with climate law and theory;

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Manage relevant learning resources and develop own arguments and opinions with minimum guidance;
• 8. Work independently and manage time efficiently in preparing for scheduled learning activities, exercises and assessments.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover all or some of the following topics:

• Introduction to climate change, and the role of science in shaping policy
• International response to climate change and the Paris Agreement
• Transparency, compliance and enforcement – methods and techniques in international climate law
• Climate justice and human rights
• Mitigation and specific issues – land use, shipping and aviation
• Adaptation and loss and damage
• Workshop – NDCs and adaptation
• International Climate Finance and technology
• Workshop – indigenous peoples, forests/land use and the role of REDD+
• EU Energy and Climate response – focus on emissions trading (including aviation)
• Climate refugees
• Workshop presentations – climate change litigation
• The UK – the Climate Change Act and CCC
• Renewable energy and energy efficiency in the UK

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Daniel Klein and others The Paris Agreement on Climate Change (OUP, 2017)

Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh State Responsibility, Climate Change and Human Rights under International Law (Hart, 2019)

Randall Abate Climate Change and the Voiceless: Protecting Future Generations, Wildlife, and Natural Resources (CUP, 2019)

Lavanya Rajamani ‘Ambition and Differentiation in the 2015 Paris Agreement: Interpretive Possibilities and Underlying Politics’ (2016) 65(2) International and Comparative Law Quarterly 493

Chukwumerije Okereke and Philip Coventry ‘Climate justice and the international regime: before, during, and after Paris’ (2016) 7 WIREs Clim Change 834

Kim Bouwer ‘Climate Consciousness in Daily Legal Practice’ (2015) Journal of Environmental Law,  OUP Blog, 22 May 2015, available at https://blog.oup.com/2015/05/climate-consciousness-daily-legal-practice/

Key words search

Climate change, climate law, environmental law