Public International Law Part III

Climate Change and the Rule of Law

Public International Law Part III

Show Notes

Despite three decades of legal development, existing systems of law fail to provide effective foundations for limiting climate change. The inadequacy of existing systems of law is thrown into relief and compounded by ongoing debates centered around who we are, and how we should relate to one another as national and international citizens. Even as climate law emerges and evolves based on notions of shared responsibility, and intra- and inter-generational equity, these norms are challenged by swelling populist and nationalist movements worldwide. This presentation explores the relationship between ongoing efforts to address climate change and evolving discourse on political identity and the rule of law focusing on two background questions, these being the degree to which there exists an 'international community', as such, that underlies and advances collective climate goals; and the extent to which shared understandings of the meaning and substantive content of the rule of law provide a foundation for addressing climate change.

More from Public International Law Part III

Nov 11, 2025

Oona Hathaway, Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, discusses her ongoing project supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, entitled ‘War Unbound.’

May 21, 2025

Informal courts created in PoW camps and Jewish ghettos during World War II illustrate the disruption of law in war and the ways in which legal pluralism can help to structure thinking about the concept of law in such a context.

Mar 14, 2025

Eitan Diamond and Ellen Nohle explore the application of the prohibition of forcible displacement in armed conflict and the extent to which the non-consensual relocation of civilians may be prohibited under the IHL rules on the conduct of hostilities.

Mar 6, 2025

Tom Dannenbaum, Associate Professor of International Law at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University, examines approaches to addressing the crime of aggression within a normatively coherent framework of immunities and international crimes. He particularly focuses on the legal and normative considerations on the establishment of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine.

Feb 24, 2023

Dr. Alessandra Spadaro of Utrecht University outlines several challenges to the applicability of the doctrine of superior responsibility in the context of the use of autonomous weapons systems.

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