Climate Injustice, Racial Capitalism, and the Contradictions of Property

This seminar examines the legal constitution of racialized climate injustice by exploring the racialized dynamics of property in the context of climate change. It explores these examples: firstly, the failure of the international climate regime to contest unjust appropriation of the atmosphere by industrialized countries regarding historical emissions; secondly, the limitations of the “no harm” rule, which is effectively the internationalization of the domestic principles of the tort of nuisance, used to provide full compensation to the racialized harm caused by climate change; and thirdly, how international investment law is allowing fossil fuel companies to seek compensation if governmental actions in response to climate concern impact their investment or hoped for returns.

About the speaker

Julia Dehm is an ARC DECRA Fellow and Senior Lecturer at La Trobe Law School, Australia. Her research addresses urgent issues of international and domestic climate change and environmental law, natural resource governance and questions of human rights, economic inequality and social justice. Her books include Reconsidering REDD+: Authority, Power and Law in the Green Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Locating Nature: Making and Unmaking International Law (edited with Usha Natarajan) and Power, Participation and Private Regulatory Initiatives: Human Rights under Supply Chain Capitalism (edited with Daniel Brinks, Karen Engle and Kate Taylor) and Becoming a Climate Conscious Lawyer: Climate Change and the Australia Legal System (edited with Nicole Graham and Zoe Nay). She was previously a consultant to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing assistance and a 2023 Member of the School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton.

This event is proudly presented by the Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence at The University of Sydney Law School.