Law, Climate Justice, and Sustainable Development

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Climate change is destabilizing economic, political, legal, and social institutions everywhere. In this context, how can rules and norms be used to foster sustainable development and maintain social order? This is a pressing question for international and domestic stakeholders concerned with the causes and consequences of climate change. Global South countries are disproportionately facing the immediate local impacts of global environmental change. In the Global North, historically marginalized groups are unequally vulnerable to climate-related risks. This course aims to provide students with an interdisciplinary understanding of the influence of actors, institutions, and organizations on climate policymaking and its effects on people's lives. While the course will emphasize global political and legal affairs, we will also discuss the role of the law in shaping climate change governance at the national and subnational levels of government. In doing so, we will explore how individuals and interest groups turn to the legal system when climate change and sustainable development policies are ineffective. Ultimately, this course will give students the tools to think critically about laws and policies devised to address social-ecological problems worsened by climate change.