Short Course: Climate Change Litigation

Course Details

Climate Change Litigation is an increasingly critical component of climate governance at the local, national, regional and global levels, exerting pressure on the executive and legislative branches of government to act on the climate change issues. At the same time, climate change-related cases have also been filed against private actors, mostly fossil fuel and cement companies, which are major greenhouse gas emitters. Young people, NGOs and others have taken to the courts to challenge governments' and corporations' actions or inactions.

This course is based around the most compelling practical issues and relevant sectors, while combining the scientific and legal frameworks and obstacles through which climate change litigation takes place. Finally, climate change litigation will be analysed as a global phenomenon, taking stock of landmark examples at the international and domestic levels, wherever they appear.

By the end of the course, participants will:

• Be cognizant of the role of climate litigation in pursuing climate action
• Have a clear understanding of the principal issues, dynamics and obstacles of climate change litigation, both from a domestic (comparative) and international perspective;
• Be better able to critically understand and assess the legal tools and principles related to climate change litigation;
• Be able to identify critical domestic, comparative and international climate-related cases and opportunities for climate action.
  
  

Indicative course topics:

• Global Perspectives on Climate Change Litigation
  
• Justiciability Issues in Climate Change Litigation
  
• Evidentiary and Attribution Science-related Issues in Climate Change Litigation
  
• International and Transboundary Climate Change Litigation 
  
• Climate Change Litigation, ESG and Business
  
• Climate Change Litigation and Human Rights
  
• Climate Change Litigation, Product Liability and Sustainable Consumption
  
• Climate-related Trade and Investment Dispute Resolution

Course programme to follow shortly

Course leader

Dr Ivano Alogna, Senior Research Fellow in Environmental and Climate Change Law, British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

Who is the course for?

This course would benefit practitioners in private law firms and NGOs; civil servants, provincial departments and local authorities; environmental managers in private sector; civil society organizations; activists, academics and students.

Course format

The virtual course format will consist of a series of 10 sessions in which live (synchronous) teaching is offered via Zoom. Participants will be able to interact with the tutors and amongst themselves on screen.

Testimonials from past attendees

"This is a really excellent course. Really informative and well structured. It is suitable for anyone interested in this area including non-lawyers."

"I really appreciated the course and learned a lot during this training. The sessions were engaging and well-structured, making complex topics easy to understand... I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in deepening their understanding of climate law"

Training scholarships

We are delighted to be able to offer scholarships designed to enable individuals from communities currently under-represented in the legal field to access our world-class courses and benefit from unparalleled learning experiences.

Scholarships are aimed at 3 categories: individuals from communities and backgrounds that are under-represented in the legal field in the UK and abroad; individuals who have recently received a needs-based bursary from their university or further-education college and representatives from Small Charities, NGOs, and Community-Based Organisations.

Applications for training scholarships must be received at least six weeks ahead of the course start date (19 August 2026). Applications must be made via the online form and applications received via any other means will not be considered.

Find out more about training scholarships 

Further Opportunities

Through its partnership with BIICL, the University of Lausanne (UNIL) allows you to use this BIICL Short Course towards the LLM and CAS (Certificate of Advanced Study) Programmes in International Business Law at the University. If this is of interest, please contact Prof Eva Lein (eva.lein@unil.ch) or Shaheeza Lalani (shaheeza.lalani@unil.ch) to discuss further. Please note that additional requirements (delivery of a written assignment following the course) will apply.

Join in the conversation @biicl.bsky.social #BIICLTraining