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Prof Megan Bowman
Prof Megan Bowman

Professor Megan Bowman

Director of Centre for Climate Law & Governance

  • Professor of Climate Law

Research interests

  • Law

Contact details

Biography

Professor Megan Bowman is a full Professor of Law and founding Director of the King’s Centre for Climate Law & Governance. She also leads the King's/United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) partnership on Legal Readiness for Climate Finance and consults to governments and the private sector on implementing the Paris Agreement and transitioning to net zero.

Professor Bowman’s expertise focuses on empirical and transnational analyses of financial regulation and company law in the context of climate change and planetary sustainability. Her award-winning research has been cited in scientific reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2022), the UN High-Level Climate Champions' Pivot Point regulatory report (2022) and featured in the eco-arts digital display The Quiet Enchanting on The Strand in London (2023). Her first book Banking on Climate Change: How Finance Actors and Transnational Regulatory Regimes are Responding (Kluwer 2015) has been lauded as ground-breaking and was launched by then Hon. Mr. Justice William Blair of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. She has been Principal Investigator on several high impact research grants including a prestigious Leverhulme Fellowship on climate-related financial and corporate regulation in Europe and the UK (2020-2022); and her current work explores justice imperatives in the context of systems change and corporate accountability as illustrated by a King’s Sustainability Seed Grant on youth-led climate litigation (2023-2024).

Professor Bowman is also a Visiting Professor in EU Company Law at Université de Paris-Dauphine; guest lecturer in climate law and sustainable finance topics at the University of Cambridge; and Legal Research Fellow for the legal charity Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL). She has held previous academic positions at McGill University, UNSW Australia, Monash University, and Victoria Law School where she was awarded the highest accolade of the Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award (2008). Most recently Professor Bowman was awarded the 2023 Supervisory Excellence Award for PhD supervision in The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London.

Professor Bowman is a qualified barrister and solicitor of the High Court of Australia and Supreme Court of Victoria who began her career as a top-tier legal practitioner in corporate/commercial law and environmental/planning law. She holds a double bachelor’s degree in Arts/Law (Hons, Monash), an LLM in Comparative Law (McGill) and a PhD in regulatory theory (The Australian National University).

Research interests

Professor Bowman’s research concerns the intersections between financial regulation and markets, company law and commercial behaviours, and planetary sustainability. She is motivated by regulatory design theories that account for the levers and limits of law in facilitating sustainability in market economies and emerging economies.

Areas of interest and expertise:

  • Sustainable finance and investment, including climate-related financial regulation
  • Climate law and implementing the Paris Agreement
  • Corporate law especially directors’ duties
  • Corporate accountability, including climate litigation
  • Justice dimensions and systems change for mainstreaming green finance
  • Technology for sustainable finance

Teaching

Teaching

LLB

  • Green Finance
  • Commercial Law
  • Contract Law

Master-level degrees and Executive Education

  • ESG and Sustainable Finance (Exec Ed)
  • Green Finance (LLM International Business Law & Transnational Law pathways; MSc King’s Business School)
  • Global Law of Climate Change (LLM Dispute Resolution & Transnational Law pathways)
  • EU Company Law (Université de Paris - Dauphine)

PURE profile

For more information on Prof Bowman's research, visit our research portal.

Research

climate change hero
Climate researchers at King’s

King's researchers working across climate and sustainability

_Climate Finance Transition - 780
Regulatory Leadership for a Climate Finance Transition

Using regulatory theory & qualitative empirical methods to study climate-related financial regulatory initiatives in the UK, Netherlands, and France.

Project status: Completed

News

'Ignite a sense of hope and possibility' New artwork launches on the Strand

‘The Quiet Enchanting’, created by design studio Superflux and presented in collaboration with King’s Culture, took inspiration from conversations with King’s...

The Quiet Enchanting Launch 1

New installation on the Strand will imagine a climate-positive mythical world

Acclaimed design studio Superflux and King’s Culture present 'The Quiet Enchanting', an installation inspired by King’s climate and sustainability research

The Quiet Enchanting Web Resize Oct 2023

King's hosts Law Schools Global League Conference and 11th Summer School

The Law Schools Global League (LSGL) General Assembly and Academic Conference, and the 11th LSGL Summer School was hosted by King’s in July, bringing together...

A large group of people smiling in front of steps

News tracker: COP27 expert commentary and updates

All the latest from across King's relating to COP27, climate, sustainability and more.

Cop27 News 2

Sovereign green bonds: What role can they play in the transition to net zero?

In March, the Qatar Centre of Global Banking & Finance and the Climate Law and Governance Centre at King’s convened a policy forum of experts to discuss the...

Green Sovereign Bonds Event Image QCGBF (2)

King's Climate Energy Governance & Finance Group's first workshop

Dr Timothy Foreman provides a summary of the first Climate Energy Governance & Finance workshop, organised jointly by the Qatar Centre for Global Banking &...

Climate change

King's researchers share expertise as part of the COP26 global climate change summit

Experts on climate change, wildfires, adaptation and climate law are participating in events at the COP26 meeting.

COP26 Flag

Special edition podcast launches to cover climate issues in the lead up to COP26

Experts from Australia and the UK discuss the many challenges linked to climate change, particularly the immediate need for nations to take action at the...

COP26: we got this podcast graphics

Fellowship success for The Dickson Poon School of Law

The Law School is pleased to announce news of three fellowship awards: one for the BA/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship scheme and two for the Leverhulme...

Elaine Player

Events

21OctRestorative Justice Tarkine Forest Tasmania 780x440 AdobeStock_298639209

Restorative Justice for the Environment – coming to a court near you?

Justice Nicola Pain, Land and Environment Court of New South Wales, Australia, will discuss her experiences of how restorative justice works in a criminal...

Please note: this event has passed.

23MarGreen Sovereign Bonds Event Image QCGBF (2)

Green sovereign bonds: What role can they play in the transition to net zero?

A panel discussion on green sovereign bonds hosted by the Qatar Centre for Global Banking & Finance and Climate Law & Governance at King's.

Please note: this event has passed.

07DecSM policy forum on Climate-related disclosures

Policy Forum on Climate-Related Disclosures

The Qatar Centre for Global Banking and Finance is bringing together global experts to discuss climate-related corporate disclosures and inform the IFRS in...

Please note: this event has passed.

Features

COP27 - academic experts from The Dickson Poon School of Law respond

Academic experts, from the Centre for Climate Law and Governance, took the opportunity provided by the 27th COP gathering in Sharm El Sheikh to share their...

Flood 1903 x 558 pexels-sveta-k-8568719

Research

climate change hero
Climate researchers at King’s

King's researchers working across climate and sustainability

_Climate Finance Transition - 780
Regulatory Leadership for a Climate Finance Transition

Using regulatory theory & qualitative empirical methods to study climate-related financial regulatory initiatives in the UK, Netherlands, and France.

Project status: Completed

News

'Ignite a sense of hope and possibility' New artwork launches on the Strand

‘The Quiet Enchanting’, created by design studio Superflux and presented in collaboration with King’s Culture, took inspiration from conversations with King’s...

The Quiet Enchanting Launch 1

New installation on the Strand will imagine a climate-positive mythical world

Acclaimed design studio Superflux and King’s Culture present 'The Quiet Enchanting', an installation inspired by King’s climate and sustainability research

The Quiet Enchanting Web Resize Oct 2023

King's hosts Law Schools Global League Conference and 11th Summer School

The Law Schools Global League (LSGL) General Assembly and Academic Conference, and the 11th LSGL Summer School was hosted by King’s in July, bringing together...

A large group of people smiling in front of steps

News tracker: COP27 expert commentary and updates

All the latest from across King's relating to COP27, climate, sustainability and more.

Cop27 News 2

Sovereign green bonds: What role can they play in the transition to net zero?

In March, the Qatar Centre of Global Banking & Finance and the Climate Law and Governance Centre at King’s convened a policy forum of experts to discuss the...

Green Sovereign Bonds Event Image QCGBF (2)

King's Climate Energy Governance & Finance Group's first workshop

Dr Timothy Foreman provides a summary of the first Climate Energy Governance & Finance workshop, organised jointly by the Qatar Centre for Global Banking &...

Climate change

King's researchers share expertise as part of the COP26 global climate change summit

Experts on climate change, wildfires, adaptation and climate law are participating in events at the COP26 meeting.

COP26 Flag

Special edition podcast launches to cover climate issues in the lead up to COP26

Experts from Australia and the UK discuss the many challenges linked to climate change, particularly the immediate need for nations to take action at the...

COP26: we got this podcast graphics

Fellowship success for The Dickson Poon School of Law

The Law School is pleased to announce news of three fellowship awards: one for the BA/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowship scheme and two for the Leverhulme...

Elaine Player

Events

21OctRestorative Justice Tarkine Forest Tasmania 780x440 AdobeStock_298639209

Restorative Justice for the Environment – coming to a court near you?

Justice Nicola Pain, Land and Environment Court of New South Wales, Australia, will discuss her experiences of how restorative justice works in a criminal...

Please note: this event has passed.

23MarGreen Sovereign Bonds Event Image QCGBF (2)

Green sovereign bonds: What role can they play in the transition to net zero?

A panel discussion on green sovereign bonds hosted by the Qatar Centre for Global Banking & Finance and Climate Law & Governance at King's.

Please note: this event has passed.

07DecSM policy forum on Climate-related disclosures

Policy Forum on Climate-Related Disclosures

The Qatar Centre for Global Banking and Finance is bringing together global experts to discuss climate-related corporate disclosures and inform the IFRS in...

Please note: this event has passed.

Features

COP27 - academic experts from The Dickson Poon School of Law respond

Academic experts, from the Centre for Climate Law and Governance, took the opportunity provided by the 27th COP gathering in Sharm El Sheikh to share their...

Flood 1903 x 558 pexels-sveta-k-8568719