In recent times the issue of climate change has catapulted to the forefront of scientific and policy agendas. Climate change threatens to have wide-ranging impacts on ecosystems and presents enormous challenges for conventional modes of socioeconomic governance. Against this backdrop, the last few years have seen the consolidation of a body of legal rules and principles organised around the central problems of mittigating and adapting to climate change. The new climate change law spans from international to local levels of governance, and encompasses the activities of a wide range of actors including governments, businesses and non-governmental environmental groups. This article surveys the scope of the new discipline of climate change law providing a synopsis of its primary component areas. It also elaborates the main challenges climate change law is likely to face as its development proceeds apace, such as coping with internationalisation of the greenhouse problem, ensuring that avenues for widespread participation in climate change regulation exist, and integrating governance and regulatory frameworks, across political and disciplinary boundaries. How climate change last, responds to this last challenge, in particular, is likely to be determinative of its effectiveness and cohesiveness as a body of law for dealing with the broad predicted impacts of global warming.
Peel, J
CLIMATE CHANGE LAW: THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW LEGAL DISCIPLINE
Melbourne University Law Review