CLIMATE CHANGE LAW
PROFESSOR TRACY HESTER
FALL 2015
INSTRUCTIONS
This final examination is a take-home exam subject to the following requirements:
1.
You will have twenty-four (24) hours to complete the examination after you check it out from the
UH Law Library. If you check out the examination at a time when the library will not accept takehome exams at the 24-hour deadline, you must turn in your exam before the library stops accepting exams that day. Examinations turned in the following day will be counted as late. You are responsible for knowing the new rules regarding when take-home exams can be picked up and turned in at the library, which I will hand out in class and post to the website.
As always, provide only your exam number (not your name) on your exam. LL.M. students should write “LL.M.” next to the exam number on their exams.
2.
The deadline to submit all final examinations is December 10 at 6:00 pm.
I cannot accept any examinations submitted after that date.
3.
This examination consists of three (3) essay questions. Each essay has a limit on the length of your answer. Rather than page limits, you will have a 2,500 word limit (approximately 10 pages) for each essay. Please remember that I do not require you to use all ten pages, and that a clear and concise five-page answer will get a higher grade than an unfocused answer that fills ten pages. I am assuming that you know the materials, so only recite definitions, quotes, background information or cases to the extent necessary to provide a cogent answer.
4.
This examination is open book . You can use your own notes, the textbook and any materials distributed in class or posted to the class website. Do not use third-party commercial materials, outlines, other texts or online resources. You can access and use cases or direct primary materials
(e.g., treaties) if they were specifically discussed in class or directly referenced in the website. The answers to these questions, however, should not require extra materials.
5.
I am not requiring you to use the Electronic Blue Book for your typed answers. You are allowed to use spell checkers or other grammar software (subject to the source restrictions described above).
6.
This final examination is subject to the University and the Law Center honor codes. Once you have received this examination, do not discuss it with any other student until after the full examination period closes (i.e., December 18).
Good luck!

CLIMATE CHANGE LAW
PROFESSOR TRACY HESTER
FALL 2015
FINAL EXAMINATION
Question 1
The Law Center has established a new environmental law clinic, and you are now one of the student attorneys. The Dean has brought a special client to the clinic with extraordinary environmental needs: the island nation of Oceanica.
Oceanica lies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and it is a typical small atoll nation with pristine beaches, crystalline blue bays and low elevation lands. The island’s population totals 10,000 persons, and it has relied on traditional mainstays for its economy: fishing, tourism, and agriculture. Oceanica may also have substantial offshore hydrocarbon and mineral deposits within its territorial waters, but exploration for those materials has just begun. Oceanica has diplomatic and trade relations and agreements with every major industrialized nation (including the United States and the European
Union), and its government and citizens conduct substantial commercial activities within those nations and own assets within them as well.
Oceanica has signed and ratified the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto
Protocol, and all accords and understandings reached during the subsequent Conferences of the Parties
(including the most recent decisions from the 2013 Conference of Parties in Warsaw).
Like many other small island developing nations, Oceanica now faces grave threats from climate change. Rising ocean levels have eroded the beaches that would normally attract tourists, intruding ocean water has infiltrated its scarce drinking water aquifers, and many scientists fear that a large typhoon’s surge could scour the entire island and cause immense damage. Rising acidity levels in the ocean have already begun to decimate certain commercially valuable fish species in nearby waters, and damaging invasive species have started to intrude into the island’s ecosystem as a result of gradually warming average surface temperatures.
The government of Oceanica has asked the UHLC Environmental Clinic to advise it on possible legal options and strategies that the island state may have to protect itself against further climate change, to obtain assistance in adapting to climate alterations, and to seek compensation for losses caused by dramatic or catastrophic climate events.
What rights and options would Oceanica have under international law? Be sure to consider relief under any potential available international legal sources, including customary international law or other nonenvironmental agreements. If relevant, discuss any potential international or domestic fora and remedies where Oceanica could seek relief. Identify any additional facts or issues that Oceanica must provide for your answer, if needed.