Climate Law: Accomplishments and Areas for Growth

Abstract

Climate law has become a vibrant legal field, offering scholars and practitioners increasingly deep analyses of what climate law is, how it is changing, what is driving those changes, and what those changes mean at the international, national, and local level. The field has elaborated and debated numerous climate-specific issues, including geoengineering, adaptation, and loss and damage. Scholars also have analysed the application of broad legal principles to the climate realm and have examined the intersection of climate law with other disciplines, especially economics and political science. I review these important accomplishments and then argue that the field could build on them in two ways. First, many opportunities exist to incorporate insights from economics, political science, and other disciplines, increasing the range of perspectives reflected in our understanding of how climate law works and how it might be improved. Second, opportunities exist for climate law to learn more from experience with other realms of environmental and non-environmental law as well as with other forms of governance. Pursuing both types of opportunities can foster the field’s continuing development.