Book launch: The Oxford Handbook of climate change and private law

This event marks the launch of a landmark Oxford Handbook exploring whether and how private law can play a meaningful role in addressing the climate crisis.

The evening features opening remarks from Lord Sales, Deputy President of the UK Supreme Court, followed by the editors and a panel discussion with leading scholars and practitioners, promising robust debate and fresh perspectives on one of the defining legal challenges of our time.

The Handbook itself brings together 46 chapters by world‑leading experts examining how climate change affects—and is affected by—private law. It challenges traditional assumptions about the limits of private law, highlights the evolving role of courts, and argues for more interconnected legal approaches to address global, intergenerational environmental harm.

A drinks reception will follow the event.

Meet our speakers and chair

Douglas Kysar, Joseph M. Field ’55 Professor of Law at Yale Law School

Ernest Lim, Chan Sek Keong Professor of Private Law at the National University of Singapore

Chair and moderator

The Right Hon Lord Sales, Deputy President of the UK Supreme Court

Joana Setzer, Associate Professorial Research Fellow at LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, Co-lead of LSE’s Global School of Sustainability

Panellists

Michael Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School and Faculty Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Margherita Cornaglia, Barrister at Landmark Chambers

Franziska Arnold-Dwyer, Associate Professor of Law at University College London

Kim Bouwer, Associate Professor in Law at Durham University

More about this event

The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment was established by LSE in 2008 to create a world-leading multidisciplinary centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment, bringing together international expertise from across LSE and beyond, including on economics, finance, geography, the environment, science, law, international relations, development and political science.

The Global School of Sustainability at LSE (GSoS) is the interdisciplinary centre for sustainability research impact at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). GSoS works in partnerships to advance pioneering sustainability research, global policy engagement and world-leading educational opportunities. Grounded in LSE’s interdisciplinary excellence across the social sciences, GSoS’s global networks target the systemic challenges to sustainability embedded in the world’s economies, politics and societies.

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