Law at the End of the World – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of Law at the End of the World we are joined by natural resources and climate law scholar Julia Dehm. Julia discusses the challenges of balancing theoretical research work with real-world research impact, the importance of mainstreaming climate change in legal education, and the juggle of balancing a career with family responsibilities. 

In addition to reflecting on Julia's talk, Cristy and Liz discuss recent developments in environmental law, and reflect on their future research directions and the need for collaboration within the legal community.

Show notes 

See below for a list of resources relevant to the themes or issues discussed during this episode

• More information on our guest, Associate Proffessor Julia Dehm, can be found here
• Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, ‘The rise of end times fascism’ (The Guardian, 13 April 2025) 
• Find more on the: Climate Conscious Lawyers
• Petra Stock, ‘Coalition scores just 1/100 points for environment and climate policies from conservation organisation’ (The Guardian, 14 April 2025) - Read article
• OHCHR Calls for Inputs - Submit or review current calls
• Alessandro Pelizzon, Ecological Jurisprudence: The Law of Nature and the Nature of Law (Springer, 2025) - find the article here
• Cristy Clark, Legal Geographies of Water: The Spaces, Places and Narratives of Human-Water Relations (Routledge, 2026) - Link to the article
• University of Leeds, Riverkin: remaking vital relations with rivers - Project info
• Berkeley Law, Roundtable on Climate Change and Class Discrimination Law, Event details
• Frontiers Planet Prize national winners announced -  Royal Society Te Apārangi
• The 2025 LSAANZ Conference: Rights, Relationality, Resilience, Reciprocity, University of Canterbury -

Would you like to leave us a comment about our show? send us a note here

Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank our producer, Claire Burgess.

You can also find us on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn - Liz & Cristy
• Bluesky - Liz & Cristy
• Our websites - Liz & Cristy

Summary

In this episode of Law at the End of the World, Elizabeth Macpherson  speaks with our guest Dr Ritodhi Chakraborty about his journey into academia. He shares highlights the  importance of the humanities and social sciences in contributing to the world's most pressing issues and that environmental sciences could benefit from expanding into alternative knowledges to ensure their work is grounded in diverse knowledge systems. He introduces the concept of maladaptation, critiques traditional environmentalism, and stresses the significance of Indigenous knowledge in climate solutions. 

The conversation also explores the ethics of research, the need for interdisciplinary approaches, and the importance of community engagement in achieving justice. 

The episode concludes with Cristy and Liz's reflections and updates on the recent developments in environmental law. 

Show notes:

• UBC Professors’ Attempt to Deny the Facts of Law and History
• For more on our guest Dr Ritodhi Chakraborty's work - click here 
• Te Ture Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua 2025/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Act 2025 No 1 
• The United Nations General Assembly includes the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment: the ocean and human rights
• Mehta, L. The Challenges of Decolonising Sustainability and the Environment in Development Studies (DS). Eur J Dev Res (2025). Read the article
• The 2025 LSAANZ Conference: Rights, Relationality, Resilience, Reciprocity, University of Canterbury - call for abstracts - 2025 LSAANZ Conference | University of Canterbury
• Round table exploration of the issues surrounding climate change and class discrimination law

Thank you for listening. If you found this episode valuable, we’d appreciate it if you liked, subscribed, shared it with others, or consider leaving us a review. 

Would you like to leave us a comment about our show? send us a note here

Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank our producer, Claire Burgess.

You can also find us on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn - Liz & Cristy
• Bluesky - Liz & Cristy
• Our websites - Liz & Cristy

In this episode of Law at the End of the World, we’re joined by Dr Birsha Ohdedar - legal scholar, climate justice advocate, and thinker on post-growth futures. Birsha shares his academic journey, insights on navigating the tensions between scholarly work and real-world impact, and reflections on law's role in climate and environmental justice. He speaks on the promise of post-growth frameworks, prefigurative legalities, and the importance of slowing down to reimagine what law can do.

Reflecting on Birsha’s interview, hosts Cristy Clark and Elizabeth Macpherson explore the challenges of parenting within academia and make a case for slow scholarship in a high-pressure sector. The episode closes with updates on current developments in environmental law and future directions for research.

Show notes:

See below for a list of resources relevant to the themes or issues discussed during this episode

• Clarke, Cristy Prefiguring legal alternatives in environmental and climate justice struggles in Australia
• For more on our guest Birsha Ohdedar's work
• Environment Minister Murray Watt heads west to restart 'Nature Positive' talks, with a decision on Woodside's gas project looming
• Crisafulli government reneges on pre-election funding pledge by axing environmental legal aid
• Landmark Legal Victory for England’s Rivers: The Court of Appeal's Pickering Judgment - Environmental Law Foundation
• The UK Rights of Nature network
• Swimmable Cities Summit 2025 - Rotterdam 
• Regulatory Standards Bill 155-1 (2025), Government Bill – New Zealand Legislation 
• Indigenous Rights in One Minute : What You Need to Know to Talk Reconciliation – Harbour Publishing
• Higher Expectations – Between the Lines: How to Survive Academia, Make it Better for Others, and Transform the University
• One Ocean Science Congress

Would you like to leave us a comment about our show? send us a note here

Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank our producer, Claire Burgess.

You can also find us on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn - Liz & Cristy
• Bluesky - Liz & Cristy
• Our websites - Liz & Cristy

In this episode, Elizabeth and Cristy discuss the concept of 'pracademia' - the intersection of academic and practical legal work. Thie conversation begins with reflections from Liz's recent keynote address for early career researchers (ECRs) in Canterbury, titled How to survive (and thrive) as an academic. Topics include insights on surviving (and thriving) in academia, emphasising the role of 'shameless self-promotion' and embracing rejection as a ncessary part of acadmic life and of growth. 

Cristy adds her perspective with a candid confession of her obsession with productivity hacks featuring shoutouts to On the Reg and TextExpander

In the second half of the episode, Liz and Cristy dive into recent developments in environmental law. Liz covers a slew of legislative changes in Aotearoa New Zealand, including a rushed amendment to the Wildlife Act - described as protecting vulnerable roads and mines from skinks, geckos and frogs,  as well as the Equal Pay Amendment Act. She also shares the exciting appointment of Gerard Albert (Whanganui Iwi) to the Waitangi Tribunal. 

Cristy discusses the Australian election results and highlights several climate cases progressing through international bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights and the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights. 

Links and further resources:

What I wish I knew: 33 thoughts for early career researchers

Amendment to Wildlife Act ‘unnecessary and muddled’

Fighting nitrate pollution in Canterbury: MHV

Anne Salmond: She won't be right, mate

Law change protects vulnerable roads and mines from skinks, geckos and frogs

Dairy dominates science panel as Govt milks research for profit

Students for Climate Solutions Incorporated v Minister of Energy and Resources [2024]

The country is not prepared for climate impacts, say advisors​

Campaigners take UK government's climate adaptation to ECHR

Would you like to leave us a comment about our show? send us a note here

Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank our producer, Claire Burgess.

You can also find us on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn - Liz & Cristy
• Bluesky - Liz & Cristy
• Our websites - Liz & Cristy

In this episode of Law at the End of the World, we’re joined by interdisciplinary water researcher Dr Aurora Kagawa-Viviani, who shares her journey navigating the complex, and often joyful, terrain of collaborative, community-based research. Aurora speaks to the importance of building relationships across university and community settings, integrating Indigenous knowledge systems, and maintaining balance between academic life and personal wellbeing.

Cristy and Liz discuss their own experiences in interdisciplinary legal research, sharing lessons learned from working across fields. The episode wraps up with hot takes on recent developments in environmental law.

Show notes:

Setting a pluralist agenda for water governance: Why power and scale matter

Global water systems: attention on power dynamics and scale mismatches

Frontiers Planet Prize winners

Aurora Kagawa-Viviani

EA acknowledges issues with “offsetting”

Scientist concerns over government interference with rock art report

Australia's largest gas project, approved for extension to 2070

Parents for Climate v EnergyAustralia

‘Carbon neutral’ is dead

Appeal rejected: the case of the Peruvian mountain guide Lliuya against RWE

Consultation on RMA national direction

EDS concerns over review of National Direction (RMA)

Carbon removals strategy MfE 

Jacinda Ardern, 2025 Yale Class Day Speaker

Would you like to leave us a comment about our show? send us a note here

Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank our producer, Claire Burgess.

You can also find us on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn - Liz & Cristy
• Bluesky - Liz & Cristy
• Our websites - Liz & Cristy

In this episode of 'Law at the End of the World', hosts Elizabeth Macpherson and Cristy Clark discuss the intersection of environmental law and human rights, and launch Cristy's new book, Legal Geographies of Water: The Spaces, Places and Narratives of Human-Water Relations.

Cristy and Liz explore the lessons from the wideranging water governance case studies in Cristy's groundbreaking book, including England and Wales, Flint and Detroit, Chile, South Africa, Manila and the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand across water commodification, financialisation and relationality. Their conversation emphasises the importance of community-led, grassroots water governance and Cristy makes the case for a fundamental reconceptualisation of human-water relationships to achieve more equitable water governance. The episode concludes with updates on latest developments in environmental law.

Show notes

Cristy CLARK

Legal Geographies of Water

Total chaos’ on Eurostar

Greenwashing renewable gas

Fracking legal challenge

Big Oil Wrongful Death

Shell oil pollution

Conservation without consent

Defossilizing our economies

Climate conscious lawyer

Would you like to leave us a comment about our show? send us a note here

Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank our producer, Claire Burgess.

You can also find us on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn - Liz & Cristy
• Bluesky - Liz & Cristy
• Our websites - Liz & Cristy

In this episode of Law at the End of the World, hosts Cristy & Liz discuss updates in environmental law, focusing on the concept of ecocide and its implications for justice. 

Dr Rachel Killean joins to discuss how her experiences in Cambodia shaped her focus on transitional and environmental justice. She introduces her upcoming book, Green Transitional Justice   and reflects on the value of reparative approaches and curiosity in research. 

Show notes

• London Climate Action Week 
• Vegan Gluten-Free Banana Bread 
• Just Cause
• Government undermines regional powers to protect coastal biodiversity
• Wetland restoration is seen as sunk cost
• Biodiversity Credits, Stolen Land, and the Risk of Recolonising Aotearoa
• Episode 239: Legacies of Colonialism, Dr. Olivia Mason
• World’s first Indigenous-led ocean reserve
• Melanesian Ocean Reserve
• Woodside's gas extension: another legal challenge 
• Revealed: the astonishing emissions that will result from the North West Shelf project 
• Pabai Pabai & Anor v Commwealth of Australia
• Billy & others v. Australia

Would you like to leave us a comment about our show? send us a note here

Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank our producer, Claire Burgess.

You can also find us on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn - Liz & Cristy
• Bluesky - Liz & Cristy
• Our websites - Liz & Cristy

In this special episode of Law at the End of the World, we feature a discussion with leading ocean governance experts Dr Karen Fisher, Dr Emily Parke, Associate Professor Dan Hikuroa & Linda Faulkner. Recorded live during an event aligned with the UN Oceans Conference in Nice, they dive into the future of ocean law and governance.

Guests unpack the complexities of marine regulation, urging inclusive approaches that centre Indigenous knowledge, local perspectives, and western science. Liz and Cristy reflect through the lens of legal pluralism and share their hot takes on recent legal developments.

This one’s a little longer - feel free to dip into the parts that resonate (pun intended)

Show notes:

Tonga Rights of Whales 

Sustainable Seas

Rights of Nature: a Legal Response to the Environmental Crisis? 

Waka-Taurua

Ecocide

Raelene Cooper v Minister for Environment and Water (Fed Court)

Court battle to protect Murujuga

Handbook on Climate Litigation

Indigenous-led Rights-based Approaches to Climate Litigation

Ocean Decade

NZ Climate litigation

Māui & Hector’s dolphins 

Orange roughy case

EC v Spain

French Polynesia MPA

New Zealand must protect the ocean

NZ lags in protecting

Would you like to leave us a comment about our show? send us a note here

Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank our producer, Claire Burgess.

You can also find us on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn - Liz & Cristy
• Bluesky - Liz & Cristy
• Our websites - Liz & Cristy

In this episode, Cristy Clark and Elizabeth Macpherson explore the intersections of climate change with the rights of children, future generations, and to care, as well as the question of how to have an impact as an academic. Our guest Aoife Nolan shares her journey into legal academia and beyond, discussing her commitment to children's rights and socio-economic justice. She explores the interconnections between austerity politics and rights, and her approach to balancing academic work with policy engagement. Aoife offers valuable advice for early career researchers on building networks and navigating their careers while maintaining balance and self-compassion, and also emphasises the need for later career academics to provide opportunities.

Liz and Cristy finish up by discussing new developments in environmental law, including recent case law related to climate change, Indigenous rights, and environmental law. The conversation also explores the recent Inter-American Court advisory opinion on the right to care, and consumer law's role in combating greenwashing.

Takutai Moana Victory for Ruapuke

Riverbeds' in Māori customary marine title

Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos

Posthuman Convergences

Climate Kids

A Critical Feminist Evaluation of Climate Adaptation Law

The Racial Discrimination Act at 50

Cooper v Minister for Environment and Water [2025] FCA 1009

Burrup Peninsula ruling

Court upholds DUH's lawsuit re Apple watches

Swiss Mitigation case

A Human Rights approach to the energy Just Transition

Would you like to leave us a comment about our show? send us a note here

Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank our producer, Claire Burgess.

You can also find us on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn - Liz & Cristy
• Bluesky - Liz & Cristy
• Our websites - Liz & Cristy

In this episode of 'Law at the End of the World', hosts Elizabeth Macpherson and Cristy Clark interview Dr Erin O'Donnell, water law expert and author of 'Legal Rights for Rivers', about her journey from desert ecology to pioneering research on river personhood and Indigenous water justice.

Erin discusses her groundbreaking work on legal rights for rivers, her role on the Birrarung Council, the voice of Melbourne's Yarra River, and her current research exploring how treaty processes could address 'aqua nullius' and increase traditional owner power in water governance. The conversation covers research methodologies that prioritise Indigenous partnership and reciprocity, the temporality of relational governance, and practical approaches to recognising rivers as living entities. The episode concludes with updates on significant environmental law developments including the ICJ climate advisory opinion and recent legislative changes across jurisdictions.

Dr Erin O'Donnell 

The bill that will torch Māori-Crown relations

Response to the Government’s limitations on judicial review under the Fisheries Act

Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill 105-3 (2024))

Millewa-Mallee native title win gives traditional owners exclusive rights

Cowichan Tribes v. Canada

International Law and Posthuman Theory

The Māori values that make good sense in science

Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change

Inter-American Court of Human Rights Advisory Opinion

River Test Motion

Unyoke the Sciences From the Hum

Would you like to leave us a comment about our show? send us a note here

Visit our podcast website - where you can find more information, including the show notes.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank our producer, Claire Burgess.

You can also find us on the following platforms:

• LinkedIn - Liz & Cristy
• Bluesky - Liz & Cristy
• Our websites - Liz & Cristy