Climate Change Law-Period 2

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues the world faces in the 21st century. It is also a particularly complex and interesting problem from a legal perspective: this is because climate change affects multiple jurisdictions (from the international to the local level), numerous areas of law (ranging from international to private law) and multiple actors (ranging from governments and international organizations to multinational businesses, NGOs and private citizens). Moreover, complex scientific, economic, political, social and ethical questions feed into the legal processes.

Analyzing the interaction of different legal fields: Greenhouse gases originate from a broad range of activities, including energy production, industry and transport to agriculture. These are regulated in, or otherwhise affected by, numerous fields of law, such as international law, European and national economic law, private law, environmental law, international trade and investment law and human rights law. Tackling climate change therefore requires understanding how these various legal fields interact.

Analyzing how different jurisdictions interact: Climate change is a transnational phenomenon, having local causes, but creating global effects: consequently, the problem must be addressed at the same time at a global scale, by regional organizations (such as the EU), at the national and at the regional level (e.g. cities). The course will look at how these different jurisdictions interact.

Understanding the role of different legal actors: Climate change is not only a concern for national governments and international organizations. The European Union, as a regional organization, has long been an important actor in this field; moreover, non-state actors play an important role as well: multinational businesses, NGOs and private citizens aim to influence the regulatory process, most notably by bringing lawsuits. The course will analyze the activities of these different actors.

Understanding the context of climate change law: Climate change has complex scientific, economic, political, social and ethical dimensions: for example, given that the emission of greenhouse gases is related to many different business sectors, a transition towards a low-carbon society will likely transform the existing economy in significant ways. This will inevitably create 'losers' along the way (e.g. coal and oil companies), who may aim to slow down the transition, thereby posing difficult economic and political questions. Or, to give another example, as greenhouse gas emissions are related to consumption, they are mainly attributable to the wealthy parts of the global population; however, climate change disproportionately affects poor populations in developing countries, and therefore raises complex ethical issues. In this course, we will study how scientific, economic, political, social and ethical questions feed into the legal process.

The course will cover:
Part 1: the science, economics and politics of climate change;
Part 2: Climate change as a global issue; the international climate change regime (e.g. Paris Agreement), international law, human rights law and international trade and investment law;
Part 3: European and national legislation (e.g. Emissions Trading System)
Part 4: Lawyering for change (e.g. lawsuits against governments and businesses in the US and in Europe)

Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.