LAW4679 The law of climate change
Faculty of Law
LAW4679 The law of climate change is a level 4, 6-credit-point, undergraduate unit from the Faculty of Law, offered in 2025 in Semester 1 at Clayton. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2025
- Semester 1
- Clayton
- Assessment
- No exam
- 2 tasks
- Workload
- 144 hours
- per semester
This is the 2025 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Requisites
Before LAW4679
Prohibitions
You can't enrol if you have passed any of these.
After LAW4679
No unit lists LAW4679 as a prerequisite in the 2025 handbook.
Enrolment rules
You must have completed at least 60 credit points of law study.
Equivalent units
The same content under another code. Only one of them counts.
Overview
Climate change is among the most daunting problems the world faces in the 21st century. This unit deals with the legal dimension of climate change, paying due regard to its social, political and economic context. The unit will examine the development of national, supranational and international regulation, and explore how public and private actors mobilise instruments from different fields of law to facilitate or to undermine climate change mitigation and adaptation. This subject examines Australia's response to climate change at national and state levels, and compares to examples in foreign jurisdictions in key regions such as European Union, America, or Asia. Select topical or emerging issues are discussed in detail from areas such as market mechanisms, protection of carbon sinks, clean development, environmental refugees, food security, sustainable development goals etc.
Offerings in 2025
| Teaching period | Campus | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| First semester | Clayton | On campus |
Assessment
- Presentation50%
- Research paperWritten50%
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
Demonstrate a sound understanding of fundamental aspects of climate law, regarding key climate change bodies, fundamental principles of international climate change law, and the relationship between international, supra-national and national climate change responses
- 2
Critically assess the role and contribution of Australian climate change law in the context of regional or national responses to climate change
- 3
Undertake research into and analyse issues of climate change from a range of primary and secondary materials
- 4
Use legal reasoning skills to develop arguments from based on principles of climate change law to address legal issues raised in factual scenarios
- 5
Communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, on current issues of climate change law in Australia, internationally, or select regions such as the US, Asia, or Europe
Workload and teaching
- Seminars36 hours
- Teaching approachActive learning
Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.
Learning resources
Required resources
See the Moodle unit page for prescribed and recommended resources. Prescribed texts are usually available for purchase through the University Bookstore and are sometimes available for short-term loan or as eBooks through the library.
Contacts
- Chief Examiners
- Associate Professor Gerry Nagtzaam
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for LAW4679?
LAW4679 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.
When is LAW4679 offered?
In 2025, LAW4679 runs in Semester 1 at Clayton.
How much work is LAW4679?
The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does LAW4679 have an exam?
No. LAW4679 has 2 assessment tasks and no exam.