Dr Laura Schuijers
Deputy Director, Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law
Dr Laura Schuijers is a lecturer at Sydney Law School and Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law. Her research explores the science-law interface, including how ecological and climate-related evidence is used in court cases and in government decision-making under Australian planning and impact assessment laws. Laura completed her doctoral thesis on the capacity of the legal system to manage environmental risk at the University of Melbourne, attending Oxford University’s Law Faculty and Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Law as a visiting scholar. Laura served as a postdoctoral climate change fellow at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute before joining the faculty at Sydney. Having volunteered as an advisor to the IUCN’s Environmental Law Centre in Germany, Laura now serves as a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law. At Sydney, she is presently teaching property law.
Publications
Book Chapters
- Schuijers, L., Bush, J. (2023). Stewardship: Retrofitting Private Property with the Common Interest in Ecology. In Nicole Graham, Margaret Davies and Lee Godden (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Property, Law and Society, (pp. 312-324). Abingdon: Routledge. [More Information]
- Schuijers, L., Young, M. (2021). Climate Change Litigation in Australia: Law and Practice in the Sunburnt Country. In Ivano Alogna, Christine Bakker, and Jean-Pierre Gauci (Eds.), Climate Change Litigation: Global Perspectives, (pp. 47-78). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers. [More Information]
Journals
- Schuijers, L. (2023). Responding to Ecological Uncertainty in the Context of Climate Change: Thirty Years of the Precautionary Principle in Australia. Sydney Law Review, 45(2), 249-277.
- Schuijers, L. (2022). Compelled by the Court to Act on Climate Change: Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action Incorporated v Environment Protection Authority [2021] NSWLEC 92. Journal of Environmental Law, 34(1), 223-232. [More Information]
- Schuijers, L. (2022). Death by a Thousand Coal Mines: Minister for the Environment v Sharma. Australian Environment Review.
2023
- Schuijers, L. (2023). Responding to Ecological Uncertainty in the Context of Climate Change: Thirty Years of the Precautionary Principle in Australia. Sydney Law Review, 45(2), 249-277.
- Schuijers, L., Bush, J. (2023). Stewardship: Retrofitting Private Property with the Common Interest in Ecology. In Nicole Graham, Margaret Davies and Lee Godden (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Property, Law and Society, (pp. 312-324). Abingdon: Routledge. [More Information]
2022
- Schuijers, L. (2022). Compelled by the Court to Act on Climate Change: Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action Incorporated v Environment Protection Authority [2021] NSWLEC 92. Journal of Environmental Law, 34(1), 223-232. [More Information]
- Schuijers, L. (2022). Death by a Thousand Coal Mines: Minister for the Environment v Sharma. Australian Environment Review.
- Schuijers, L., Godden, L. (2022). Law and Litigation for the Conservation of Forest Communities. Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity, 9(2), 1-24.
2021
- Schuijers, L., Young, M. (2021). Climate Change Litigation in Australia: Law and Practice in the Sunburnt Country. In Ivano Alogna, Christine Bakker, and Jean-Pierre Gauci (Eds.), Climate Change Litigation: Global Perspectives, (pp. 47-78). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers. [More Information]
- Schuijers, L. (2021). Environmental law: climate of change in the courtrooms. Law Society Journal, 84, 76-78.
2017
- Schuijers, L. (2017). Asia and Pacific: Australian Climate Change Law after the Adani Coal Mine Case. Carbon and Climate Law Review, 1, 64-73.
- Schuijers, L. (2017). Environmental decision-making in the anthropocene: Challenges for ecologically sustainable development and the case for systems thinking. Environmental and Planning Law Journal, 34(3), 179-197.
2011
- Schuijers, L. (2011). Application of a rights-based approach to conservation: the problem of fragmentation and the need for a coordinated response. Macquarie Journal of International and Comparative Environmental Law, 7(1), 22-38.
In the media
Brendan Sydes, Anita Foerster, Laura Schuijers,The Greens’ climate trigger policy could become law. Experts explain how it could help cut emissions – and why we should be cautious(The Conversation, 2 August 2022)
Laura Schuijers, Thomas Newsome,‘Bad and getting worse’: Labor promises law reform for Australia’s environment. Here’s what you need to know’(The Conversation, 19 July 2022)
Laura Schuijers,Australia’s environment law doesn’t protect the environment – an alarming message from the recent duty-quashing climate case (The Conversation, 29 March, 2022)
Laura Schuijers, ‘Bushfire Survivors Just Won a Crucial Case Against the NSW Environmental Watchdog, Putting Other States on Notice’ (The Conversation, 27 August 2021)
Laura Schuijers, ‘Climate Science is Now More Certain than Ever – Here’s How it can Make a Difference in Australian Court Cases’ (The Conversation, 13 August 2021)
Laura Schuijers, ‘In a Landmark Judgment, the Federal Court Found the Environment Minister has a Duty of Care to YoungPeople’ (The Conversation, 27 May 2021)
Brendan Wintle, Laura Schuijers, and Sarah Bekessey, ‘A Victorian Logging Company Just Won a Controversial Court Appeal. Here’s What it Means for Forest Wildlife’ (The Conversation, 17 May 2021)
Laura Schuijers, ‘These Aussie Teens Have Launched A Landmark Case Against the Government. Win or Lose, It’ll Make A Difference’(The Conversation, 10 September 2020)
Laura Schuijers, ‘The Government’s UNGGI Scheme – What It Is and Why the Government Wants it Investigated’ (The Conversation, 29 April 2020)
Laura Schuijers, ‘Covid-19 Is an Opportunity to Reset Our Environmental Future’ (University of Melbourne Pursuit, 18 April 2020)
Laura Schuijers, ‘Climate Change in Court’ (University of Melbourne Pursuit, 3 March 2019)