GOVERNANCE OF INNOVATION & CLIMATE CHANGE

Law, Disruption, and the Governance of Climate and Innovation_1 Class 1. Climate change and legal disruption. The first class introduces law, regulation and technology as a field of study, organised around the idea of disruption: of legal doctrine and its normative foundations, of regulatory frameworks and their legitimacy, and of the effort to build regulatory environments fit for purpose. It then examines climate change as a legally disruptive phenomenon, because it is polycentric, scientifically uncertain, socially and politically contested, and set in a physically dynamic environment, and considers how these features strain existing legal doctrine and adjudication. Readings: Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford and Karen Yeung, 'Law, Regulation, and Technology: The Field, Frame, and Focal Questions' in Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford and Karen Yeung (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Law, Regulation and Technology (OUP 2017) 3

Law, Disruption, and the Governance of Climate and Innovation_2 Imagining technology and environmental law. Environmental law is prospective, and its relationship with technology is therefore an imaginative one. Taking Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons as an origin myth of environmental law, this class contrasts instrumental and constitutive sociotechnical imaginaries of law and technology, and uses chemicals regulation to show how legal categories constitute the objects they regulate. It closes by drawing out the interconnections between the governance of climate change and the governance of innovation. Readings: Elizabeth Fisher, Eloise Scotford and Emily Barritt, 'The Legally Disruptive Nature of Climate Change' (2017) 80 Modern Law Review 173 Elizabeth Fisher, 'Imagining Technology and Environmental Law' in Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford and Karen Yeung (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Law, Regulation and Technology (OUP 2017) 360

Week 2: Values and Institutions Human dignity and the regulation of technology. Can human dignity serve as the normative foundation for regulating technology? This class examines the argument that dignity should be understood not only as a barrier against atrocity but as the foundational concept of the human rights regime, whose concrete content is the protection of the authority of human beings to govern their own lives. It considers what this implies for the relationship between technological development and regulation, and how this reading differs from uses of dignity as a constraint on technology. Cohesion policy and the transformation of a mandate. Using EU cohesion policy as a case study, this class examines how the legal architecture of a public programme can change its purpose over time, through changes to goals and eligibility, conditionality, control mechanisms and financial instruments, and what this reveals about the governance of large-scale public investment. Readings: Marcus Düwell, 'Human Dignity and the Ethics and Regulation of Technology' in Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford and Karen Yeung (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Law, Regulation and Technology (OUP 2017) 177 Leticia Díez Sánchez, 'Why Cohesion Policy Is Not About Cohesion' (2025) 62 Common Market Law Review 13

Week 3: How Law Adapts Legal evolution in response to technological change. Drawing lessons from historical legal responses to new technologies, this class examines three recurring problems: pre-existing legal categories may not fit new disputes; the novelty of a technology can distort legal analysis; and the disputes a new technology will generate are often unforeseeable. It uses the regulation of synthetic biology as a worked example. Regulating in the face of sociotechnical change. This class challenges the framing of the field itself, considering the argument that technology is neither a special rationale for regulation nor a coherent regulatory target, and that the real problem is managing the continuous adjustment of law to a changing sociotechnical landscape. It examines the case for and against technological neutrality and the institutional choices involved in regulatory timing and responsiveness. In-class exercise: the Aviation Security Act and human dignity. Students analyse the German Federal Constitutional Court's 2006 decision striking down the provision of the Aviation Security Act that authorised shooting down hijacked passenger aircraft, testing the dignity framework from Week 2 against a decided case. Readings: Gregory N Mandel, 'Legal Evolution in Response to Technological Change' in Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford and Karen Yeung (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Law, Regulation and Technology (OUP 2017) 225 Lyria Bennett Moses, 'Regulating in the Face of Sociotechnical Change' in Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford and Karen Yeung (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Law, Regulation and Technology (OUP 2017) 573 For the exercise (not compulsory): Oliver Lepsius, 'Human Dignity and the Downing of Aircraft: The German Federal Constitutional Court Strikes Down a Prominent Anti-terrorism Provision in the New Air-transport Security Act' (2006) 7 German Law Journal 761

The AI Act, Standards and the Product Safety Model The EU AI Act as a hybrid of product safety regulation and fundamental rights protection; the reliance of the Act's high-risk obligations on harmonised technical standards drafted by European standardisation bodies; the legitimacy questions raised by delegating the operative content of a regulation with worldwide effect to private standardisation; and the 2026 Digital Omnibus on AI, which deferred the high-risk obligations in part because the standards were not ready. Readings: Marco Almada and Nicolas Petit, 'The EU AI Act: Between the Rock of Product Safety and the Hard Place of Fundamental Rights' (2025) 62 Common Market Law Review 85 [Reading on European standardisation to be identified]

Group exercise on EU AI Act.

Lab: Idea Generation for Horizon Europe, the Ecosystem of Space Innovation (Fahimeh Mousavi and guest lecturer) From challenge to project idea Lesson: Public funding for space innovation; introduction to Horizon Europe and topic analysis; identifying a governance or innovation challenge; the problem statement and Project Canvas. Workshop: Choose and interpret a suitable Horizon Europe topic. Draft a topic summary, the problem, gap, proposed intervention and initial objectives. Materials: lecture slides, workshop guidance and relevant Horizon Europe topic and proposal documents provided during the lab.

Lab: Idea Generation for Horizon Europe, the Ecosystem of Space Innovation (Fahimeh Mousavi and guest lecturer) The space innovation ecosystem Lesson: Stakeholder mapping, consortium roles, evidence search and responsible use of generative AI. Workshop: Map relevant actors and potential partners, verify evidence, and test and revise the original project idea. Materials: lecture slides, workshop guidance and relevant Horizon Europe topic and proposal documents provided during the lab.

Lab: Idea Generation for Horizon Europe, the Ecosystem of Space Innovation (Fahimeh Mousavi and guest lecturer) Excellence Lesson: Objectives, methodology, assumptions, uncertainty, barriers, risks and relevant ethical considerations. Workshop: Draft the Excellence section and a methodology diagram. Materials: lecture slides, workshop guidance and relevant Horizon Europe topic and proposal documents provided during the lab.

Lab: Idea Generation for Horizon Europe, the Ecosystem of Space Innovation (Fahimeh Mousavi and guest lecturer) Impact Lesson: Project results, outcomes, longer-term change, indicators and uptake within the space innovation ecosystem. Workshop: Draft the impact pathway and an approach to communication, dissemination and exploitation. Materials: lecture slides, workshop guidance and relevant Horizon Europe topic and proposal documents provided during the lab.

Lab: Idea Generation for Horizon Europe, the Ecosystem of Space Innovation (Fahimeh Mousavi and guest lecturer) Implementation Lesson: Work packages, tasks, milestones, timeline and resource logic. Workshop: Draft the work plan and indicative budget. Integrate and review the proposal skeleton. Materials: lecture slides, workshop guidance and relevant Horizon Europe topic and proposal documents provided during the lab.

Lab: Idea Generation for Horizon Europe, the Ecosystem of Space Innovation (Fahimeh Mousavi and guest lecturer) Resources, budget and proposal consolidation Lesson: Linking activities to resources and an indicative budget; checking consistency across Excellence, Impact and Implementation. Workshop: Complete a guided review of the proposal, including evidence, objectives, methodology, impact, work plan, budget and documented use of generative AI. Revise the proposal following feedback. Materials: lecture slides, workshop guidance and relevant Horizon Europe topic and proposal documents provided during the lab.