Staff profile

Dr Kim Bouwer joined Durham Law School in 2021. She was previously a Lecturer in Law at the University of Exeter and prior to that, she was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. She has also held posts at University College London (London and Adelaide), Kings College London and the University of Strathclyde.
Dr Bouwer holds an LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) and an LLM, specialising in Human Rights, from Birkbeck College, University of London. She completed her PhD at UCL in 2016. Her thesis, ‘Building Disappointment’, examined the limits and potential of private law to address problems arising from domestic energy efficiency improvements. Before returning to UCL to pursue her doctoral research, Kim worked as a lawyer. She is a qualified attorney and solicitor and has experience of practice in two jurisdictions, England and Wales, and South Africa. She worked as a solicitor at a number of Legal 500 firms in London.

Dr Bouwer’s broader research interests lie in energy and climate change law and private law. She is particularly interested in litigation in the context of climate change, the regulation and governance of energy efficiency and low carbon technologies, and climate finance. At present her research focuses on climate litigation and its relationship with activism.

Book review

• Bouwer, Kim (2022). Climate Change Litigation in the Asia Pacific, Edited by Jolene Lin and Douglas A. Kysar Published by Cambridge University Press, 2020. Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law 31(1): 150-152.

Chapter in book

• Bouwer, Kim & Gimson, Rachel (2022). Provoking McAuslan: Planning Law and Property Rights. In Taking English Planning Law Scholarship Seriously. Lee, Maria & Abbot, Carolyn London: UCL Press.
• Bouwer, Kim (2021). Climate Change and the Individual in the United Kingdom. In Comparative Climate Change Litigation: Beyond the Usual Suspects. Francesco Sindico & Makane Moïse Mbengue Springer. GSCL 47: 133–151.
• Annalisa Savaresi & Kim Bouwer (2018). Equity and justice in climate change law and policy: A role for benefit-sharing. In Routledge Handbook of Climate Justice. Tahseen Jafry, Michael Mikulewicz & Karin Helwig Routledge. 128.

Edited Journal

• Bouwer, Kim & Field, Tracy-Lynn (2021). Special Issue: The Emergence of Climate Litigation in Africa. Carbon & Climate Law Review, 15 (2): Lexxion.

Journal Article

• Bouwer, Kim, John, Evan, Luke, Oliver & Rozhan, Nur Amanda (2023). ‘Climate Change isn’t Optional’ Climate Change in the Core Law Curriculum. Legal Studies
• Bouwer, Kim (2022). The Influence of Human Rights on Climate Litigation in Africa. Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 13(1): 157-177.
• Bouwer, Kim & Field, Tracy-Lynn (2021). The Emergence of Climate Litigation in Africa. 15(2): 123 - 128.
• Kim Bouwer (2021). Substantial Justice?: Transnational Torts as Climate Litigation. Carbon & Climate Law Review 15(2): 188 - 203.
• Bouwer, Kim (2021). Possibilities for Justice and Equity in Human Rights and Climate Law: Benefit-Sharing in Climate Finance. Climate Law 11(1): 1-44.
• Bouwer, Kim (2020). Lessons from a Distorted Metaphor: The Holy Grail of Climate Litigation. Transnational Environmental Law 9(2): 347 - 378.
• Kim Bouwer (2018). Insights for Climate Technology Transfer from International Environmental and Human Rights Law. Journal of Intellectual Property Rights 23(1): 7.
• Bouwer, Kim (2018). The Unsexy Future of Climate Change Litigation. Journal of Environmental Law 30(3): 483.
• Bouwer, Kim (2015). When gist is mist: mismatches in small-scale climate change litigation. Environmental Law and Management 27: 11-20.

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Bouwer, Kim (2022). Climate Litigation and Climate Activism. Video.
• Bouwer, Kim (2022). Net Zero Rule of Law: Climate Consciousness and Legal Education. Blog.
• Bouwer, Kim & Setzer, Joana (2020). Climate Litigation as Climate Activism: What Works? 14.
• Bouwer, Kim (2015). Climate consciousness in daily legal practice. Blog.