Apart from their assigned mod courses, 1L students may only enroll in courses offered as 1L electives. A complete list of these courses can be found on the 1L Elective Listings page. 1L students must use the 1L class number listed on the course description when enrolling.
288.43 sec. 001 - Climate Refugees? Responding to Climate Displacement (Spring 2024)
Instructor: Kathryn J Jastram (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only | profile)
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 1
Grading Designation: Credit Only
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meeting:
Th 3:35 PM - 5:25 PM
Location: Law 12
From January 11, 2024
To February 22, 2024
Course End: February 22, 2024
Class Number: 33535
This course is open to 1Ls.
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 23
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 40
As of: 04/27 11:56 PM
As climate change becomes more apparent each day, there is growing awareness that many people must flee their homes and in some cases their countries as a result. This results in a legal gap, as people displaced across borders in the context of climate change or natural disasters are not generally considered to be refugees under international law. At the same time, people who do fit squarely within that definition are increasingly unwelcome, with many developed countries in particular seeking to evade their treaty obligations to refugees. How can we reconcile a retreat from protection with a growing need for international solutions?
This class will explore efforts to date to address cross-border climate-related displacement drawing on international and U.S. law. We will examine the rationale for having an asylum system in the first place, as well as its critiques: who benefits, who is left out, and why? We will explore international and Inter-American refugee and human rights law efforts to encompass climate displacement. We will then look at how human mobility is addressed in the context of climate change law. After this grounding in the international law framework, we’ll turn to the United States and assess litigation, legislation, and administrative measures that could position the United States to step up to this challenge. This class is an excellent introduction to the law, policy, and politics of a critical humanitarian, racial justice, and national security issue.
Kate Jastram is the Director of Policy & Advocacy at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. She has worked for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and for the Department of Homeland Security, has served as an expert on asylum for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and was part of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration’s Civil Immigration Detention Standards Advisory Task Force. She is active in the leadership of the American Society of International Law and now serves on the Executive Committee of its International Refugee Law Interest Group. She won the Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award from the American Immigration Lawyers Association in 2005, with the interdisciplinary team that wrote the USCIRF expedited removal study.
Her scholarly work has been published in the International Journal of the Red Cross, the Journal of International Criminal Justice, and the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, with book chapters in Critical Issues in International Refugee Law, Migration and International Legal Norms, and Refugee Protection in International Law. Her most recent article is Climate Change and Cross-Border Displacement: What the Courts, the Administration, and Congress Can Do to Improve Options for the United States (forthcoming, Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law). She is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Refugee Law.
Exam Notes: (None) Class requires a series of papers, assignments, or presentations throughout the semester
Course Category: International and Comparative Law
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Environmental and Energy Law
Social Justice and Public Interest
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