Abstract/Summary

The 2009 Copenhagen Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC epitomizes the stalling of international negotiations on climate change mitigation and adaptation. In the grim days of climate change governance, the literature tends to neglect ethical arguments on the responsibility of polluting states. Rather, it turns to a desperate quest for ‘whatever works’. This article addresses the development of a discipline round an emerging regime. It reviews in particular the principled approaches of climate governance, doctrinal analyses on mitigation, the shift from ‘enforcement’ to ‘facilitation’ and to ‘liability’, the fragmented governance of adaptation in the human rights, development and migration regimes, and innovative scholarship on the transnational regime complex concerning climate change.