In the Wilds of Climate Law

Edited by Rosemary Lyster

Sydney Law School



As the challenge of climate change begins to impact upon all aspects of everyday life, the need for a wider approach to its legal implications is never more urgent. This unique text from some of the country's top legal academics as well as Stanford University's Professor Armin Rosencranz, illustrates with disturbing clarity how legal policy, litigation, investment, corporations law, labour law, property law, international law, and WTO law all intersect with the environmental legal framework when considering the impacts of climate change. Members of the Climate Law and Policy Group and invited speakers from a conference hosted at Sydney Law School by the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law (ACCEL) entitled 'Intersections Between Global Climate Change, Law and Policy' presented the papers that now comprise the chapters of this edited collection. For some this was their first-ever foray into the relationship between an area of law in which they had been immersed for years and global climate change. The chapters are in no way the authors' final and or definitive contributions to the field, which is a reflection
of the ongoing debate and research findings by scientists and others, yet the reader will find much to stimulate their thinking about this broad-ranging topic.

About the Author

Rosemary Lyster, Professor in the Faculty of Law University of Sydney and Director of the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law (ACCEL). In the area of Environmental Law, Rosemary specialises in Energy and Climate Law, Water Law and GMOs and Environmental Law. Rosemary is the Energy and Water Special Editor of the Environmental Planning and Law Journal which is the leading environmental law journal in Australia. Rosemary is a member of the IUCN - The World Conservation Union Commission on Environmental Law, comprising environmental lawyers from around the world. She is a member of the Commission's Special Working Groups on Water and Wetlands, Energy and Climate Change, and Forests.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • About the Authors
  • Part I: Keynote
  • CHAPTER 1 - ACCEL Climate Change Law and Policy Conference: Keynote Talk on America's Challenges
  • Armin Rosencranz
  • CHAPTER 2 - Climate Change and the Concept of Private Property
  • Paul Babie
  •  
  • Part II: International Perspectives
  • CHAPTER 3 - World Trade Organization and Climate Change: A Clash of Civilisations?
  • Gillian Triggs
  • CHAPTER 4 - International Courts and Climate Change: 'Progression', 'Regression' and 'Administration
  • Tim Stephens
  • CHAPTER 5 - Climate Change and Resource Scarcity: Towards An International Law of Distributive Justice
  • Ben Saul
  •  
  • Part III: Emissions Trading
  • CHAPTER 6 - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation:
  • The Road to Copenhagen
  • Rosemary Lyster
  • CHAPTER 7 - Contractual Perspective of Climate Change Issues
  • Elisabeth Peden
  • CHAPTER 8 - Climate Change and Tax Law: Tax Policy and Emissions Trading
  • Celeste M. Black
  •  
  • Part IV: Litigation and Business Liability
  • CHAPTER 9 - Climate Governance and Corporations: Changing the Way 'Business does Business'?
  • Susan Shearing
  • CHAPTER 10 - Labour Law and Climate Change Law
  • Victoria Lambropoulos
  • CHAPTER 11 - Climate Change Litigation
  • Hon Justice Brian J. Preston
  • CHAPTER 12 - Liability in Tort for Damage Arising From
  • Human-Induced Climate Change
  • Peter Cashman and Ross Abbs