This course will examine international climate law, looking at both the current international legal frameworks and the negotiation of the future regime.

The course will also explore fundamental questions about how international climate law interacts with national law and how private sector players participate in a global public international law regime. We will examine the effectiveness of the regime and what is required to achieve safe levels of anthropogenic emissions with many practical examples of how the law is implemented. Although touched upon the focus is not on domestic climate law regimes.

Topics include:

• An overview of the climate problem and what drives the legal and policy response-especially looking at the work of the IPCC.
• An overview of international climate change law frameworks- UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, the Marrakesh Accords, the Copenhagen commitments, the outcomes from subsequent negotiations and new proposals for a global regime.
• The international Negotiation Process: Bali. Poznan, Copenhagen, Cancun, Durban and Beyond 2012.
• Specific Focus on key market mechanisms under Kyoto: Emissions Trading, the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation and how these mechanisms will develop post 2012.
• Avoided Deforestation and the REDD process.
• Domestic responses to implementing the international framework: the EUETS, the US, Australia, NZ. This includes the extent to which we see international regimes beginning to play an increasing role in the implementation of measures to reduce emissions to the exclusion of international law.
• The interaction between climate change law and other areas of public international law-such as WTO and human rights. International litigation around climate change- from Tuvalu to aviation under the EUETS.