Climate change presents many complex and long-term challenges for society, economy and environment. This subject considers the way in which law and legal regimes can contribute to addressing these challenges and the way legal frameworks might need to be re-conceptualized and changed to respond. This subject examines the international legal framework under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Paris Agreement, including questions of mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. It also examines transnational forms of climate change regulation, including through carbon markets and other voluntary measures as well as the ways in which law can promote transitions to a low-carbon society. The course also covers Australian regulatory measures to address climate change, looking at federal, state and local law. The subject concludes by looking at the growth in litigation to respond to climate challenges as well as the interaction between climate change and other legal regimes, such as trade and human rights.

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