Reference Library

Future legal professionals need to be appropriately supported and resourced to navigate this changing legal landscape and to advance climate change mitigation and adaption.

Current law students require a transformative legal education that will guide them to become “climate conscious” legal professionals with the skills and knowledge to be thoughtful strategic and successful advocates in a climate-transformed world.

Below is a bibliography of scholarship highlighting the need for climate change considerations to be mainstreamed in legal education.

There is a rapidly growing body of literature on this topic. If we’ve missed any materials that should be included on this list please contact us.

Batros, Ben, ‘Foreword to UQLJ Special Edition on Climate Change, the Law and Legal Education’ (2021) 40(3) The University of Queensland Law Journal i <https://journal.law.uq.edu.au/index.php/uqlj/article/view/6237>
Bedford, Narelle, Tony McAvoy Sc and Lindsey Stevenson-Graf, ‘First Nations Peoples, Climate Change, Human Rights and Legal Rights’ (2021) 40(3) The University of Queensland Law Journal 371 <https://journal.law.uq.edu.au/index.php/uqlj/article/view/6125>
Bonython, Wendy, ‘Tort Law and Climate Change’ (2021) 40(3) The University of Queensland Law Journal 421 <https://journal.law.uq.edu.au/index.php/uqlj/article/view/6043>
Bouwer, Kim, ‘Climate Consciousness in Daily Legal Practice’, OUPBlog (22 May 2015) <https://blog.oup.com/2015/05/climate-consciousness-daily-legal-practice/>
Bouwer, Kim et al, ‘“Climate Change Isn’t Optional”: Climate Change in the Core Law Curriculum’ (2023) 43(2) Legal Studies 240 <https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0261387522000356/type/journal_article>
Campion, Jennifer, ‘Mainstreaming Climate Change in Legal Education’ in Tracey Bowell et al (eds), Revitalising Higher Education: Insights from Te Puna Aurei LearnFest 2022 (Cardiff University Press, 2024) <https://www.cardiffuniversitypress.org/site/books/e/10.18573/conf2/>
Cooper, Nathan John, ‘New Adventures in Jurisprudence’ [2024] New Zealand Law Journal 259
Crowe, Jonathan, ‘“It Makes No Difference What We Do”: Climate Change and the Ethics of Collective Action’ (2021) 40(3) The University of Queensland Law Journal 477 <https://journal.law.uq.edu.au/index.php/uqlj/article/view/6033>
Graham, Nicole, ‘Teaching Private Law in a Climate Crisis’ (2021) 40(3) The University of Queensland Law Journal 403 <https://journal.law.uq.edu.au/index.php/uqlj/article/view/6047>
Graham, Nicole, ‘Learning Sacrifice: Legal Education in the Anthropocene’ in Kirsten Anker et al (eds), From Environmental to Ecological Law (Routledge, 1st ed, 2022)
Graham, Nicole et al, ‘All Legal Education Is Climate Law Education: The Core Curriculum Matters’ in Re-Imagining Environmental Law (Edward Elgar, 2024)
Ireland-Piper, Danielle and Nick James, ‘Why We Did This, What’s Included, and What We Missed’ (2021) 40(3) The University of Queensland Law Journal 311 <https://journal.law.uq.edu.au/index.php/uqlj/article/view/6105>
Ireland-Piper, Danielle and Nick James, ‘The Obligation of Law Schools to Teach Climate Change Law’ (2021) 40(3) The University of Queensland Law Journal 319 <https://journal.law.uq.edu.au/index.php/uqlj/article/view/6083>
Lavey, Warren G, ‘Toolkit for Integrating Climate Change into Ten High-Enrollment Law School Courses’ (2019) 49(2) Environmental Law 513 <https://www.jstor.org/stable/26794291?casa_token=XYEXu_IsAM0AAAAA:OpH1SgBItT6dZU_3BZmUTogqlmFDqqZEpIDav9bjAreyMZRkacnqJlYpOoygQ23cxBMAmzg6uQZLhpxdHtlrJvU5RpPyjAKHW1-Jr9VeFhGKj662aa4>
Liao, Carol, ‘Lawyers in a Warming World’ [2024] Available at SSRN <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4883547>
Preston, Brian J, ‘Climate Conscious Lawyering’ (2021) 95 Australian Law Journal 51 <https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/aslnlwjunl95&id=53&div=&collection=>
Preston, Brian, ‘Mainstreaming Climate Change in Legal Education’ [2024] Griffith Law Review 1 <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10383441.2024.2348433>
Rogers, Nicole, ‘Stepping out of the Ivory Tower into Fire and Flood: Climate Activism and the Academy’ (2023) 48(2) Alternative Law Journal 133 <http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1037969X231161741>
Taylor, Monica, ‘Climate Crisis, Legal Education and Law Student Well-Being: Pedagogical Strategies for Action’ (2021) 40(3) The University of Queensland Law Journal 459 <https://journal.law.uq.edu.au/index.php/uqlj/article/view/6103>
Young, Margaret A, ‘Climate Change and Law: A Global Challenge for Legal Education’ (2021) 40(3) The University of Queensland Law Journal 351 <https://journal.law.uq.edu.au/index.php/uqlj/article/view/6045>
‘Community Lawyering and Climate Justice: A New Frontier - Monica Taylor, Bronwyn Lay, 2022’ <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1037969X221110906>