Laura Mai

King’s College London



Navigating Climate Change Transformations: The Potential and Limits of Transnational Climate Governance and Implications for International Climate Change Law

My doctoral research investigates what the growing recognition and involvement of sub-national and non-state actors in global climate governance means for international climate change law. Specifically, it assesses how steering processes which are developed by transnational cooperative initiatives – cross-border alliances that rely on voluntary participation – fit with the international climate change regime that has evolved under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The central aims of my dissertation are to investigate, first, what contribution transnational climate governance actually makes to bringing about the required climate change transformations, and second, the role of the inter-state climate regime in steering and enhancing transnational governance efforts. In so doing, my research applies a socio-legal framework which combines doctrinal analysis with empirical research methods.

  • International climate change law
  • international environmental law
  • transnational climate governance
  • sustainability governance
  • transformation research
  • legal theory
  • socio-legal studies

since January 2019 – Visiting Lecturer, King’s College London

July – November 2018 – Internship, United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, Bonn

since October 2017 – PhD Candidate, King’s College London

May – September 2017 – Research assistant, Australian National University – School of Regulation and Global Governance, research project: “Joined-up Governance for Low-carbon Cities“

2015 – 2017 – Training Contract, Slaughter and May (London, Brussels, Hong Kong)

2017 – Qualification to practise as a solicitor in England and Wales

October – December 2014 – Internship, German Embassy Manila (Philippines)

2013 – 2014 – Master of Law (LLM), University of Cambridge

2009 – 2013 – Bachelor of Law (LLB) and Baccalaureus Legum, University College London and University of Cologne – double degree “English and German Law“

L. Mai
(2018): The Growing Recognition of Transnational Climate Governance
Initiatives in the UN Climate Regime: Implications for Legal
Scholarship. Climate Law, Vol. 8, No. 3-4, p. 183-194

L. Mai
(2014): Overview: European Law. Cambridge Journal of International
and Comparative Law, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 276-281

  • Climate Law & Governance Centre, King’s College London
  • Transnational Law Institute, King’s College London