JJUA55327U Disasters, Displacement and the Law

Volume 2025/2026
Content

It is undoubtable that extreme weather events and natural hazards are on the rise as a result of climate change. Storm surges, intense rain storms, drought, floods and other extreme weather events are already threatening the habitality of many parts of the world. Among the many costs are the human consequences for those who reside in places that are the most severely impacted. People facedifficult decisions about whether and when to leave, and if they do, where to go. This course examines the law governing disasters and associated displacement and migration from a contemporary legal perspective.  
 

This course will answer the following questions:

  • What is a “disaster” as a matter of law?
  • Why is the term “climate refugee” legally problematic?
  • What international legal protections apply? 

In doing so, it will canvass the following key themes:

Legal responses to disasters, their prevention and response, and the intersection with human mobility including evacuation and planned relocation.

The relevance of human rights law, with case studies before domestic and international courts and tribunals, including the application of the principle of non-refoulement in the context of climate change (Teitiota v New Zealand).

The nexus between climate change, armed conflict, and other push factors associated with human mobility, and the legal protections available under international and regional arrangements, depending on how mobility is classified, and by whom.

The notion of “disappearing” states, statelessness and the relevance and application of the statelessness conventions.

Solutions available through legal frameworks, including options and methods for opening regular migration pathways, enhancing local resilience to climate related hazards through planning, property and human rights law, and the (im)possibility of a new international treaty.

 

Case studies will be utilized and might include island states facing ocean inundation from sea level rise such as Kiribati, the Solomon Islands; states facing flooding and other extreme events in the Nordic and Arctic Region; persistent and ongoing drought in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the intersection between natural hazards and armed conflict, as well as other situations and events as they arise during the course.

Learning Outcome

Upon successful completion of the course, students will:

 

Knowledge:

  • have gained specialist knowledge in the legal regimes that govern people on the move across as a result of climate change and disaster, whether they have crossed borders, or simply relocated within a state.
  • will have attained an advanced understanding and ability to conceptualise climate and disaster-related human mobility, including as it relates to disaster risk reduction, armed conflict, and historical inequality.
  • and they will be able to explain the tensions and distinctions between protection-based and migration-based legal responses, including the relevance of refugee law and human rights law.

 

Skills:

  • Students will be able to articulate and problematize the strengths and weaknesses of various emerging and proposed legal responses to climate change and disaster-related mobility, separating facts from law.
  • students will be able to identify and apply a matrix of relevant legal regimes to specific case studies in national and international legal contexts.

 

Competences:

  • Through this course students will develop advanced competences in applying law from a cross-section of jurisdictions to complex fact scenarios
  • as well as in the construction of persuasive and concrete legal argument from legal regimes where the answers are not always immediately clear,  as well asdistinguishing and identifying both client and societal interests.

Approximately 375 pages will be assigned reading.

To ensure a diversity of perspectives and the most up-to-date teaching material, assigned readings will be drawn from a variety of authors and perspectives.

Materials will be divided into optional and mandatory readings.

Students are not expected to buy any books as part of the course.

Students wishing to familiarize themselves with the topic may wish to read:

- Miriam Cullen and Matthew Scott (eds), Nordic Approaches to Climate-Related Human Mobility (Routledge, 2024) (online, open access)

- Jane McAdam, Climate change, Forced Migration and International Law (OUP, 2012)

 

It is illegal to share digital textbooks with each other without permission from the copyright holder.

Participants ought to be proficient in English
Students must be familiar with basic public international law or be prepared to undertake additional reading to familiarize themselves with it.
The seminar style of this course allows it to be taught in a dialogue style in which students and teacher are in regular discussion. The teaching is tailored to respond to and consider contemporary developments as they arise. To facilitate this, some flexibility is incorporated into the schedule to allow for students and teacher to apply the law to new disasters or displacements as they occur. This keeps the course engaging for students and optimizes learning opportunities.

In addition, students are asked to prepare a research assignment in groups as part of the course based on a problem presented to them by a professional engaged in responding to climate-related displacement on the ground, a legal practitioner preparing cases in the field, or a person who is themselves displaced or facing displacement due to climate change related impacts. This means the students are actively engaged in researching real-world problems to identify and provide legal solutions in real time.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Preparation
  • 178,25
  • Seminar
  • 28
  • Total
  • 206,25
Oral
Individual
Collective
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)

 

Ongoing feedback will be provided in realtime by facilitated dialogue between lecturer and the students.
his course is taught in dialogue style which allows feedback to travel both from students to teacher on their own learning and understanding and from teacher to students, as well as between students. In relation to the latter, cluster feedback is particularly encouraged during class hours, and while students are preparing their in-course assignment. 

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Home assignment, 2 days
Type of assessment details
Assigned written individual assignment, 2 days
Aid
All aids allowed

Read about the descriptions of the individual exam forms, including formal requirements, scope and deadlines in the exam catalogue
 

Read about practical exam conditions at KUnet
 

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Exam period

05-01-2026-07-01-2026

Re-exam

11-02-2026-13-02-2026