Urgently Needed: Climate Lawyers

Abstract

We argue that climate law has specific features—including scientific complexity, a strongly transboundary nature, and long-term effects—that make it more challenging to study than other more traditional domains of environmental law. As a consequence, an interdisciplinary perspective may be needed even more for climate law than for the traditional study of environmental law. Climate law is to some extent underestimated by scientists, who should realize that for effective mitigation of greenhouse gases and adaptation to climate change, an optimal design and enforcement through climate law is necessary. Climate law can be expected to become more important with the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and for that reason climate lawyers should receive a more prominent position in the international policy arena of climate change.