LAW47115: INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE LAW

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• To provide a critical introduction to climate change as a common concern of humankind: a complex global challenge that intersects law, policy and science and different legal orders;
• To provide a critical introduction to and a profound understanding of the contemporary political and legal responses;
• To understand climate change as part of international environmental law and as an area of law where different legal regimes and legal orders (international, regional, domestic) are closely linked;
• To develop research skills and contextual awareness of how law might be most effectively used and developed to address global challenges.

• This module explores the ability of the law to adequately respond to the challenges presented by climate change and the adverse effects of climate impacts;
• It provides an introduction to the legal developments of the international regime on climate protection and the role of climate science within this regime;
• It provides an integrated approach to understanding climate change, the importance of decolonising the curriculum and teaching on climate change, and the need for widening the perspectives in teaching and learning on climate change law;
• It examines climate change in the wider political, economic and ethical context of sustainable development, at the international and the national level;
• It covers a range of related subject areas, and topics can include as waste management, ozone depletion, ecosystem services;
• Topics will include consideration of climate jurisprudence, and the role of strategic climate litigation to drive regulatory action across various jurisdictions, including the global North and the global South;
• The implementation of international law on climate change at the level of domestic law;
• Consideration will be given to the wider international environmental frameworks where appropriate, and the modes of development of legal regimes through sub-treaty law.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Understanding of current approaches towards climate protection at the international level;
• In depth-knowledge and understanding of the science, policy and law of climate change in the context of legal developments;
• Profound understanding of the relevant literature and the leading debates surrounding key issues that arise under the international climate change regime;
• Understanding of the interdependence of international law on climate change and legal developments in domestic law.

Subject-specific Skills:

• The ability to critically assess the legal response to climate change, in international law and in national law;
• The ability to examine climate change within the wider context of political, ethical, and economic debates;
• The ability to use identify and use the leading primary and secondary sources relevant to climate change as a legal issue;
• The ability to analyse legal problems in the context of climate change and biodiversity loss;
• The ability to critically evaluate the effectiveness of legal measures that address climate change, nationally and internationally.

Key Skills:

• The ability to undertake independent research on new topics, at the intersection of different areas of law, and of law and science;
• The ability to think critically about legal solutions in the wider context of political, ethical, and economic developments;
• The ability to analyse primary sources of law;
• The ability to critically read and reflect on secondary sources, including research articles and reports;
• The ability to manage time efficiently and work independently within a limited time frame to complete a specified task.

• Students will be introduced into the subject matter by a lecture, and a revision lecture will be provided, including providing instructions for the assessment;
• Students will be given reading to undertake, guiding questions to answer and tasks to perform in advance of and during each seminar;
• Course seminars will offer opportunities to:
• Examine relevant issues and developments under the international climate change regime;
• Consider how law can be applied to challenges that climate change represents;
• To present their prepared work to illustrate the role of law in governing the transformational changes that decarbonisation of the global economy entails;
• Critically assess the effectiveness of legal responses for tackling issues and constraints;
• Students will be undertaking group work in class and preparing the negotiation exercise will enable students to test their team working, researching and oral presentation skills;
• Feedback from formative and summative assessments will aid students with improving their abilities to critically analyse law, undertake research with a view to supporting such analysis.

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