The second Law & Sustainability: Transforming Pathways in the Asia Pacific Region Conference, was hosted this year by Sydney Law School on 11 & 12 July 2024. The Plenary Session on ‘Sustainability and Legal Education’ began with a powerful keynote address given by Chief Justice Brian Preston, (Land and Environment Court NSW), followed by a Roundtable discussion featuring Professor Nicole Graham (University of Sydney), Dr Katie Woolaston (QUT), Professor Cameron Holley (UNSW Law & Justice) and Professor Bronwen Morgan (UNSW Law & Justice). The conference was the second of three regionally-focused conferences on the subject of Law & Sustainability coming out a SMU-Sydney-HKU partnership.
The purpose of the Roundtable was to move beyond the reasons why it is essential to embed sustainability perspectives in the legal curriculum and to venture into the ‘how’ aspect of this topic, addressing both core and elective curricula. Professor Nicole Graham opened the discussion with some scene-setting about how legal education is becoming more climate conscious in Australia and beyond. Dr Katie Woolaston shared the nation-leading contribution of QUT embedding of Sustainability throughout its core Law curriculum. Professor Cameron Holley and Professor Bronwen Morgan discussed the development of a new elective unit at UNSW which brings together a wide range of core curriculum content in relation to climate change. The Roundtable closed by showcasing the Becoming a Climate Conscious Lawyer book and introduced the next project by the team: the Educators’ Companion volume.