Current Research Projects
Learn about MCLE's current research projects.
Advancing Investor Action on Energy Transition
Funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant (DP220100124) for 2022-2025, this project aims to advance action by investors (debt and equity) to increase finance for low-carbon energy sources that reduce fundamental climate risks.
Property as Habitat: Reintegrating Place, People and Law
The project aims to produce an original account of property law that will connect it to place and human relationships, using innovative analytical techniques and a grounded consideration of the functions and effects of property. Funded by Australian Research Council Discovery Project, DP190101373 (2019-2022).
Accessing Water to Meet Aboriginal Economic Development Needs
The Cultural Water for Cultural Economies project is designed to identify specific law and policy pathways to increase water access for Traditional Owners and First Nations across Victoria, and to support their use of this water for economic development in accordance with their laws and cultural protocols. The project is a partnership between the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) and University of Melbourne, as well as representatives from 20 Traditional Owner organisations and First Nations across Victoria. Project ID: 1954101.1. (2018-2021).
Legal Dimension of Climate Change
The project aims to develop an analysis of climate risk as a critical concept in interdisciplinary research that is relevant to transformations in climate change law, regulation and policy in the international and national spheres. This project will undertake a regulatory network theory analysis of the manner in which climate risk has diffused across legal fields and models in a situation of weak international and national policy orientation on climate change and energy regulation. Funded by Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI), (2018 - current).
A report on sustainable finance is in progress.
EME Support/ evaluation of ClientEarth Phase 2
This research evaluates the impact of litigation brought by ClientEarth under its Strategic Climate Litigation Program for Europe and its work on environmental governance in China. This project is a contract research funded by Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.
Regulating Cumulative Environmental Effects: Designing Global Best Practice
Led by Dr Rebecca Nelson, this project aims to analyse and evaluate laws regulating cumulative environmental effects in the United States of America, European Union, Canada and Australia. The outcomes will increase the capacity of regulators, industry, and the community to better manage common challenges in managing environmental effects and reducing environmental harms. Funded by Discovery Early Career Research Awad (DECRA), Australian Research Council, DE180101154, (2018-2023).
The Potential and Limits of International Adjudication
This project aims to analyse the place of adjudication in international affairs, using a case study of Australia’s extensive engagement with the International Court of Justice. Led by Professor Margaret Young and Professor Hillary Charlesworth, the project will provide a detailed account of the context and impact of the cases in which Australia has been involved before the Court, and will assess the complex roles that adjudication and advisory opinions can play in the resolution of international disputes more generally. Funded by Australian Research Council Discovery Project, DP180101318, (2018 - 2021).
Counter Narratives: Climate Change Law and Indigenous Rights
Counter Narratives: Climate Change Law and Indigenous Rights. This project is focused on encounters between juridical, political and cultural narratives in the context of climate change. It contrasts the determinacy of rights and its institutions with a recuperation of obligation and an acknowledgement of multispecies entanglements.