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To showcase the growing hub of climate law and governance research and expertise within The Dickson Poon School of Law, we are delighted to host a three-part series of public lectures on climate change and governance during 2017. These lectures will be given by distinguished experts in the field of climate change law and governance internationally, as well as our own King’s talent in this field. These lectures will present emerging thinking in climate law and governance globally and will harness and reflect the interdisciplinary research and teaching interests relating to climate change within the School.
Abstract
What role might international adjudication play in addressing climate change, considered by many the defining issue of our times? Thus far, the international climate change regime has developed primarily through negotiations, marked most recently by the adoption of the Paris Agreement and decisions by the Montreal Protocol parties and the International Civil Aviation Organization to address hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and aviation emissions respectively, two very rapidly growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite recent political developments in the United States and Europe, which have cast doubt on the future of the UN climate regime, a negotiated outcome is still essential in addressing climate change internationally. But adjudication could also play a constructive role, not as a substitute for the negotiations but as a complement. The talk explores the relationship between adjudication and negotiation, and how an ICJ advisory opinion could work with rather than against the grain of the negotiations.
About the speaker
Daniel Bodansky is Foundation Professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. His work focuses on international environmental law generally and climate change law in particular. Prior to his arrival at ASU in 2010, Professor Bodansky was the Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Emily and Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law at the University of Georgia School of Law from 2002-2009, and was a faculty member at the University of Washington School of Law from 1989-2002. He served as the Climate Change Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State from 1999-2001, and as an attorney-advisor from 1985-1989. Since 2001, Professor Bodansky has worked with the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (formerly the Pew Center on Global Climate Change) as a consultant and adviser. He has also consulted for the United Nations in the areas of climate change and tobacco control. He has served on the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law, is the U.S.-nominated arbitrator under the Antarctic Environment Protocol, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Society of International Law, and the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Public International Law. Awards include an International Affairs Fellowship from the Council of Foreign Relations, a Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs, and a Jean Monnet Fellowship from the European University Institute.
Professor Bodansky’s book, The Art and Craft of International Environmental Law (Harvard University Press 2010) received the 2011 Harold & Margaret Sprout Award from the International Studies Association as the best book in the field of international environmental studies. He also co-edited the Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law (Oxford 2006) and has authored dozens of articles and book chapters on international law, international environmental law and climate change policy. His new book, International Climate Change Law, co-authored with Jutta Brunnée and Lavanya Rajamani, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in June 2017.
Professor Bodansky received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, an M.Phil. in the History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University, and his law degree from Yale Law School, where he was a member of the Yale Law Journal.