KDEC 9190 - Remaking International Law in an Era of Climate Change

Climate change constitutes today one of the most important threats to human societies, states and the planet. The Climate change regime was put in place in 1992 with the adoption by the international community of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Since then the Climate change regime has evolved to deal with various issues of general international law such as inter alia human rights, law of the sea, international trade law, international investment law, sustainable development law and international dispute settlement.

The objective of this course is to explore and decrypt how the fight against global warming has served as a ground not to say a laboratory to rethink and remake international law in those areas of general international law. The course will also explore how climate change litigation, through the use of international courts and tribunals, has been a vehicle for the reinterpretation of fundamental rules and principles of international law to adapt to the new challenges posed by climate change to present and future generations

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