The Climate Regime and Public International Law PhD/Early Career Researcher Workshop
12th – 13th December 2022
This workshop assessed current trajectories of the climate regime in the context of public international law and in the wake of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Themes included intersections between climate change and human rights, climate change and trade and investment law, climate change and oceans governance, climate change and decarbonisation, and international climate litigation. Participants were invited to depart from the pragmatic, state-oriented discussions of COP27 and offer scholarly analysis and critique. Rights and obligations of states, subnational entities, international organisations and other actors were assessed. Papers drew on a variety of methodologies, including historical work, empirical country-based engagement, and a focus on how the COP’s sphere of professional specialisation sits alongside other regimes of international law. The participants were PhD students, Early Career Researchers and senior academics from Melbourne Law School and the University of Cambridge.
The discussants at the workshop included Prof Margaret Young, Dr Markus Gehring and Prof Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, in addition to Professor Jacqueline Peel (online).
The workshop and the participation of MLS Faculty and PhD students were supported by a Cambridge Law Faculty - Melbourne Law School Partnership Grant, the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, and the Institute for International Law and the Humanities.