The Climate Migration & Displacement Project (CMDP) is a Berkeley Law pro bono project that supports innovative litigation and policy research to secure rights and protections for populations displaced by climate disasters. This growing field of study and research is incredibly intersectional, touching on many of the legal issues including environmental law, gender justice, immigrant rights, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, human security, and international and comparative law. Student participants will have the opportunity to support the research of high-level organizations and institutions by creating legal memos, policy briefs, and literature reviews.
California Climate Displacement and Natural Disaster Research Project
Project Partner: Central California Legal Services (CCLS)
Project Description: Students will support CCLS by conducting legal research and producing memos briefing legal issues related to disaster assistance, disaster services for immigrant and farmworker communities, California housing policy, and recent wildfire response legislation. Students may also assist with the creation of informational outreach for communities being impacted by heatwaves, wildfires, and housing insecurity. Students interested in learning more about disaster response, California housing policy, and the impacts of climate change on California communities are encouraged to apply for this project. This is a great opportunity for students to build relationships with an incredible legal services organization.
Deliverables: 2-3 short memos per student addressing specific legal questions from CCLS.
Climate Mobility Justice: Legal Landscape, Resources, and Community
Project Partner: Beyond Climate Collaborative
Project Description: Students will support research Beyond Climate Collaborative’s efforts to create the Climate Mobility and Leadership Innovation Hub, a centralized resource platform for lawyers working to protect people displaced by climate change and environmental degradation. Students will create a resource guide with existing climate mobility legal resources, including case databases, practice toolkits, research hubs, and training materials. Once completed, students will have the opportunity to develop resources to address identified gaps across these resources. Students interested in learning more about different legal approaches to climate migration, building a collaborative legal community, and increasing accessibility of climate and migration resources are encouraged to apply for this project. This is a great opportunity for students to familiarize themselves with a breadth of climate migration organizations and join a network of attorneys dedicated to climate justice.
Deliverables: Resource guide of existing tools (fall semester) followed by development of missing resources (spring semester).
Housing as a Human Right: California Environmental Justice Research Project
Project Partner: Western Center on Law and Poverty
Project Description: Students will support Western Center on Law and Poverty’s housing justice work by conducting research on the relationship between environmental justice and housing as a human right in California. This project will build upon prior WCLP research on a national right to housing in the U.S. and previous efforts to pass a constitutional amendment enshrining a right to housing in the California constitution. Students will conduct research on the right to housing in the face of climate change and increased natural disasters and produce a memo detailing their findings on what recognition and implementation of this right could look like in California. Students interested in the relationship between environmental justice and housing rights, constitutional amendments, and efforts to align the U.S. civil rights scheme with international human rights law should apply. Students working on this project will also have access to WCLP Housing as a Human Rights learning series.
Deliverables: A memo outlining what recognition and implementation of housing as a human right could look like in the context of climate justice.
International Human Rights and Climate Displacement before the African Court of Human Rights
Project Partner: Center for Gender & Refugee Studies
Project Description: Students will work with the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) to conduct research on the issue of climate-related cross-border displacement in an advisory opinion pending before the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights. Students will analyze the questions posed in the request for an advisory opinion, amicus briefs submitted, and other commentary for mention of climate-related human mobility, and produce a memo summarizing their findings. Depending on when the African Court issues its opinion, students may also be asked to produce a memo analyzing its treatment of climate-related migration. Useful examples and analogies may be found in commentary on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ 2025 advisory opinion on the climate emergency. Students interested in international human rights law, climate-related human mobility including cross-border displacement, and/or the African Court of Human and People’s Rights are encouraged to apply.
Deliverables: Memo analyzing questions, amicus, and commentary on climate-related displacement in advisory opinion currently before the court (fall semester). Memo analyzing court treatment of climate-related displacement after the opinion is released (ideally, spring semester but the date is uncertain).
Supervision: Students will be supervised by attorneys at Central California Legal Services, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, Western Center on Law and Poverty, and Beyond Climate Collaborative.
Time Commitment: Students will be expected to attend numerous training sessions: (1) an introduction to climate mobility with an expert in the field; (2) research training with the librarian; and (3) potentially other project-specific training sessions.
There will be weekly mandatory research sessions over lunch on Mondays from 12:45-2:00 pm. Students will need to join every research session and will otherwise need to complete the rest of their weekly research independently. There will also be monthly meetings with our project partners. Student participants can expect to spend between 30-35 hours per semester on this project.
For more information, please contact the student leaders at CMDP@berkeley.edu.