International Economic Law & The Climate

This course explores the relationships between climate change and international economic law. After considering the synergies and conflicts between climate change, international trade, and foreign investment, the course assesses climate dimensions of core treaty commitments in the World Trade Organization (WTO), free trade agreements (FTAs), and investment treaties. Students will critically analyse how these legal instruments can be leveraged or reformed to support climate objectives and the Paris Agreement. Insights will also be used from emerging climate frameworks in finance and supply chains as well as international climate litigation based on human rights disciplines. Based on a combination of lectures and applied case studies and exercises, the course is highly interactive with considerable student participation and discussion.