Climate Change Law & Science: Exploring the Interplay Between Legal Systems and Climate Change Science

About

Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to legal systems, governance structures, and the production and use of scientific knowledge. As these challenges cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries, addressing climate change requires sustained interdisciplinary dialogue between legal scholarship and climate science.
This summer school offers an in-depth, research-focused exploration of the evolving relationship between climate change law and climate science. The course examines how scientific knowledge is generated, assessed, and translated into legal reasoning, regulatory frameworks, and litigation strategies. Through expert lectures, testimonies, interactive discussions, and hands-on workshops, participants will critically engage with the law–science interface and reflect on emerging governance challenges, including the role of courts and the implications of new scientific developments for specific accountability and broader climate governance.

The course will examine the following subjects:
- Production and Assessment of Climate Science
- The Role of Scientific Evidence in Law and Policy
- Use of Scientific Evidence in Legal and Regulatory Contexts
- Climate Litigation, Attribution, and Causation

Course leader

Ivano Alogna (CMCC Foundation, BIICL); Giulia Galluccio (CMCC Foundation)

Target group

The Summer School on “Climate Law & Science: Exploring the Interplay between Legal Systems and Climate Change Science” is designed for Master's students, PhD students, early-career researchers and professionals in relevant fields, seeking to strengthen their ability to engage with climate-related legal and policy challenges in academic, institutional, or professional contexts.
The maximum age at the time of application is 40 years old.

Course aim

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- critically understand and explain how climate science is produced, assessed and communicated, including the roles of scientific methods, modelling tools and assessment frameworks.
- understand the relationship between law and science, and explain how climate science informs legal norms, regulatory frameworks, and decision-making processes.
- recognise and integrate climate-related scientific evidence into legal strategies, policy development, and regulatory compliance.
- analyse litigation and accountability frameworks by examining climate litigation cases, assessing enforcement mechanisms and anticipating how scientific developments can shape future legal risks and accountability.
- develop interdisciplinary problem-solving skills by critically assessing complex, real-world climate scenarios, proposing evidence-based legal solutions, and navigating the interaction between law and science.

Students will be invited to contribute to a collective publication designed to advance interdisciplinary understanding of the intersection between climate law and climate science. A selection of these contributions will be refined further and integrated into an open-access collective publication, which aims to showcase the emerging interdisciplinary perspectives of early-career researchers and bridge the gap between academic research and policy-relevant insights. The publication will also contribute to the ongoing debate on the role of science in climate law and litigation.

Fee info

VAT not included; +22% VAT