Varieties of Climate Agency with a Special Focus on Climate Litigation - An International Workshop

22. Oktober 2024

Against the background of existing scholarship on climate law and governance which has been attracting an international interdisciplinary research community (Climate Law and Governance Day @COP28), this research focuses on the global opportunity structure for climate change (Aykut, Wiener et al. 2021; Wiener et al. 2023) in order to identify under which conditions climate agents are enabled or constrained to act: what are regulatory and customary conditions of agency in a global context? The research takes account of and follows up from Professor Wiener’s current research on climate litigation and social drivers of climate change which has been conducted at the Hamburg Excellence Cluster CLICCS (Wiener 2022) and on her well-renowned work on norm contestation in international relations (Wiener 2018). The workshop will also benefit from the research done in the CCE on mapping a climate atlas of legal rules and litigation challenges and research on climate change in EU trade law (Gehring et al, 2023). It will have space for graduate researchers from Law, Land Economy, Political Science and Cambridge Zero.  

Monday,, November 4th 2024

1:00-1:30 pm: Light Lunch (Old Library, Lauterpacht Centre, 5 Cranmer Road) 

1:30-2:00 pm: Welcome

Opening and Objectives / Research Focus, by workshop organisers Professor Antje Wiener (University of Hamburg) and

Associate Professor Markus Gehring (University of Cambridge)

2:00-3:30 pm: Panel 1: Context Polycrisis

Chair: Prof Antje Wiener

Discussants: Prof Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (University of Cambridge)

Prof Mette Eilstrup- Sangiovanni (University of Cambridge)

Hamburg Climate Futures Outlook – How to Make Climate Adaptation a Success 

Dr Jan Wilkens (Senior Researcher in the Synthesis Team at the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) in the Cluster of Excellence ‘Climate, Climatic Change and Society’ (CLICCS) at the University of Hamburg)

Hughes Hall Climate Atlas – How to Make Climate Law in Different Jurisdictions 

Nick Scott (Senior Lawyer, Centre for Climate Engagement, Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge)

3:30-4:45 pm: Panel 2: Climate Litigation as a Social Driver for Deep Decarbonisation I

Chair: Associate Prof Markus Gehring

Discussants: Prof Christine Schwoebel-Patel (Warwick University)

Climate Litigation as a Social Driver Towards Deep Decarbonisation I: A Framework and a General Assessment

Prof Stefan C. Aykut (Professor of Sociology, Mercator Endowed Chair on the Social Dynamics of Ecological Transformation) & Prof Antje Wiener (Professor of Political Science and Law)

Climate Litigation as a Social Driver Towards Deep Decarbonisation II: Zooming in on Two Cases

Prof Cathrin Zengerling (hybrid) (Professor of Law and Sustainability Transitions) & Jill Bähring (PhD researcher, Faculty of Law, Humbolt University and Faculty of Political Science, University of Hamburg)

5pm: The Cambridge Seminar Series on Law and the Climate Crisis – Hughes Hall

Professor Richard Lazarus (Harvard University): The Challenges of Constitutional Law in the United States for Climate Lawmaking

7pm: Workshop Dinner at Hughes Hall 

Tuesday,, November 5th 2024

10:00 am-12:00 pm: Panel 3: Climate Litigation as a Social Driver for Deep Decarbonisation II

Chair: Prof Antje Wiener

Discussant: Prof Stefan C. Aykut (University of Hamburg)

Climate Law and Governance – Courage, Contributions and Compliance

Prof Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (Chair in Sustainable Development Law and Governance) & Tejas Rao (PhD researcher, Department of Land Economy)  

Phasing Out Fossil Fuels under International Law – the Role of Litigation

Prof Harro van Asselt (Professor of Climate Law, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, Hughes Hall)

EU Climate Litigation – New Perspectives on the Just Transition 

Associate Prof Markus W. Gehring (Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge) & Lea Weimann (PhD Researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge)

12pm: Lunch 

1:00-3:00 pm: Roundtable 5: Future Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Law and Governance

Chairs: Prof Antje Wiener & Associate Professor Markus Gehring

Participants:

Emily Farnworth (Director, Centre for Climate Engagement, Fellow, Hughes Hall) 
Prof Christine Schwöbel-Patel (Co-Director of the Centre for Critical Legal Studies at Warwick Law School)
Dr Kennedy Mbeva (Centre for Existential Risk, Fellow, Hughes Hall)
Associate Prof Giovanni Mantilla (Associate Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), Fellow of Christ’s College)
Prof Mette Eilstrup- Sangiovanni (Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), Fellow, Sidney Sussex College)
Dr Antoinette Nestor (Cambridge Zero, Director of Studies, Lucy Cavendish College)
Prof Ivano Alogna (Senior Fellow, British Institute for International and Comparative Law) 
Dr Jelli Molino (Research By-Fellow, Hughes Hall)
Dr Samuel Ruiz-Tagle (Research By-Fellow, Hughes Hall)

3:00 pm: Wrap-up and Next Steps

Professor Antje Wiener and Associate Professor Markus Gehring

3:30 pm – Close

From 10 pm: Informal US Election Viewing – Hughes Hall Senior Common Room from 10pm

This workshop is organised as part of the research project funded by the DAAD between the University of Hamburg and the University of Cambridge and hosted by the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, 5 Cranmer Road, Cambridge, UK and Hughes Hall in the University of Cambridge. The research has benefited from exchanges with our colleagues in the excellence cluster Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CLICCS), especially the subproject B2 on Climate governance and the synthesis project, as well as from reviewers of the Hamburg Climate Futures Outlooks. Acknowledgment of funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), German Government’s Excellence Strategy. EXC 2037: Climate, climatic change, and society (CLICCS), award number 390683824.