Climate litigation

This unit will explore the emerging and growing global phenomenon of climate litigation, namely the use of courts to try to achieve climate regulatory outcomes. The unit will critically examine examples of major climate litigation cases within Australia and comparatively across the Global North and South, through various thematic perspectives. Topics are likely to include global trends in climate litigation; the role of courts in the context of climate change; possibilities and limits of existing law (for example, administrative law and tort law) to the challenge of addressing climate change; concepts of climate justice and climate reparations; the role of distinctive groups (such as small island nations; children and First Nations peoples) as actors in climate litigation; and state obligations in respect of climate change under international law . The unit may also explore proposals to develop new tools for litigating gross environmental harms, such as the proposal towards an international crime of ecocide.