COURSE DESCRIPTION AND APPLICATION INFORMATION
| Course Name | Code | Semester | T+A+L (hour/week) | Type (C / O) | Local Credit | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perils and Possibilities: Climate Activism and Law | KHAS 1212 | Spring | 03+00+00 | Elective | 3 | 5 |
| Academic Unit: | Core Program |
| Mode of Delivery: | Face to face |
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Language of Instruction: | English |
| Level of Course Unit: | Undergraduate |
| Course Coordinator: | - - |
| Course Lecturer(s): | ÖZLEM ASLAN |
| Course Objectives: | Students will critically engage with the concept of justice in relation to environment and climate. By doing that the course will present students the differentiated impacts of environmental challenges and look into the ways communities make this differentiation visible by engaging the law. They will analyze the distribution and recognition aspects of environmental justice and will learn about different process of environmental claim making. The students will question the potentials and limits of law in bringing up social change especially in a context like climate change which emerges as a result of the actions of multiple human actors and environmental processes. |
| Course Contents: | Climate change is everywhere. Everybody is talking about climate change. But there are one group of actors who take action against climate change through the courts framing failure to abide by climate change agreements as an issue of legal liability. Their actions not only have the potential to bring about change in environmental regulations but also in public awareness by enhancing a public dialogue around climate change. New climate litigation cases emerge globally in the United States, the Netherlands, Pakistan, and the Philippines. In this context this course is asking following question: What is climate change litigation? Who are the actors involved in this practice? What kind of justice frameworks are involved in it? What are the limits and potentials of climate litigation? How do different stakeholders receive the decisions of courts? Thus, this course will particularly focus on climate litigation which emerges as a prominent new route for climate activism since the Paris Agreement and the Urgenda case. |
| Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit (LO): |
|
| Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods: | Teaching: Lecture and discussion - 3 hours / week Learning: Synchronous and asynchronous reading and writing tasks completed both individually and in groups. |
WEEKLY SUBJECTS AND RELATED PREPARATIONS
| Week | Subjects | Related Preperation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | An overview of the syllabus. | None |
| 2 | Defining Environmental Justice | Reading the assigned article. |
| 3 | Claim-Making | Reading the assigned article. |
| 4 | Legal Opportunity | Reading the assigned article. |
| 5 | Defining Climate Justice | Reading the assigned article. |
| 6 | Distributing the Burdens of Climate Change | Reading the assigned article. |
| 7 | Climate Litigation and Framing | Reading the assigned article. |
| 8 | Climate Litigation as a Regulatory Response | Reading the assigned article. |
| 9 | Liability and Climate Change | Reading the assigned article. |
| 10 | Responsibility and Climate Litigation | Reading the assigned article. |
| 11 | Ramadan Feast | |
| 12 | Social Impacts of Climate Litigation: | Reading the assigned article. |
| 13 | Promises of Litigation and Climate Activism | Reading the assigned article. |
| 14 | Capitalism | Reading the assigned article. |
At Kadir Has University, a Semester is 14 weeks; The weeks 15 and 16 are reserved for final exams.
REQUIRED AND RECOMMENDED READING
| Schlosberg, David. (2007). “Distribution and Beyond: Conceptions of Justice in Contemporary Theory and Practice.” In Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements, and Nature. Walker, Gordon. (2012)“. Making Claims: Justice, Evidence and Process.” In Environmental Justice: Concepts, Evidence and Politics: 39-75. Hilson, Chris. 2002. “New Social Movements: The Role of Legal Opportunity.” Journal of European Public Policy 9:2 April 2002: 238–255. Pettit, Jethro. (2009). “Climate Justice: A New Social Movement for Atmospheric Rights.” https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43539614.pdf McInerney-Lankford, Siobhdn. “Climate Change and Human Rights: An Introduction to Legal Issues.” https://harvardelr.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2019/07/33.2-McInerney-Lankford.pdf Page, Edward. (2008). “Distributing the Burdens of Climate Change.” Environmental Politics 17 (4): 556-575. Hilson, Chris. (2010). Climate Change Litigation: A Social Movement Perspective. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1680362 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1680362 Lin, Jolene. (2012). Climate Change and the Courts. Legal Studies, Vol. 32 No. 1, March 2012, pp. 35–57. DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-121X.2011.00206.x Brunnee, Jutta, Goldberg, Silke, Lord QC Richard, and Rajamani, L. “Overview of Legal Issues Relevant to Climate Change.” In Climate Change Liability Transnational Law and Practice. Richard Lord, Silke Goldberg, Lavanya Rajamani and Jutta Brunnee (Eds.): 23-50 Derman, B.B., 2019. Revisiting limits to legal mobilization for global climate justice: Complexity, territoriality, and responsibility. Received 17 February 2018, Accepted 30 May 2019.Oñati Socio-legal Series[online], 9(3), 333-360. Averill. M. (2008). Climate Litigation: Ethical Implications and Societal Impacts. Denver University Law Review 85 (4): 899-918. Vanhala, Lisa. (2013). “The Comparative Politics of Courts and Climate Change.” Environmental Politics 22(3): 447-474. Sayer, Andrew. (2009). “Geography and Global Warming: Can Capitalism Be Greened?” Area 41 (3): 350-353. Swyngedouw, Erik. (2010). Apocalypse Forever? Post-Political Populism And The Spectre Of Climate Change. Theory, Culture and Society 27: 213: 32 Walker, Gordon. (2012)“. Making Claims: Justice, Evidence and Process.” In Environmental Justice: Concepts, Evidence and Politics: 39-75. |
OTHER COURSE RESOURCES
ASSESSMENT METHODS AND CRITERIA
| Semester Requirements | Number | Percentage of Grade (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Homework Assignments | 6 | 30 |
| Other Practices (seminar, studio critics, workshop etc.) | 1 | 15 |
| Midterms / Oral Exams / Quizes | 2 | 20 |
| Final Exam | 1 | 35 |
| Total: | 10 | 100 |
WORKLOAD
| Events | Count | Duration (Hours) | Total Workload (hour) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course Hours | 14 | 3 | 42 |
| Homework Assigments | 6 | 2 | 12 |
| Extra-Class Activities (reading,individiual work, etc.) | 14 | 2 | 28 |
| Midterms / Oral Exams / Quizes | 2 | 15 | 30 |
| Final Exam | 1 | 13 | 13 |
| Total Workload (hour): | 125 | ||
1 ECTS = 25 Hours Workload
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES (LO) AND PROGRAM QUALIFICATIONS (PQ)
| # | PQ1 | PQ2 | PQ3 | PQ4 | PQ5 | PQ6 | PQ7 | PQ8 | PQ9 | PQ10 |
| LO1 | ||||||||||
| LO2 | ||||||||||
| LO3 | ||||||||||
| LO4 | ||||||||||
| LO5 | ||||||||||
| LO6 |
Contribution: 1 Low, 2 Average, 3 High