Climate change and natural disasters are increasingly relevant to asylum and human rights cases. However, recognising their legal significance is not always straightforward. One of the main challenges is understanding how academic research and international jurisprudence can be translated into practical legal arguments that national courts and tribunals can consider.
The new UK Practice Toolkit: Climate, Disasters & Protection Claims, is an important step towards addressing this challenge [1]. It brings together academic research, legal experience and policy expertise to help UK practitioners identify and develop claims involving climate change and natural disasters within existing legal frameworks.
Why academia and legal practice need each other
I have always believed that academic research and legal practice should not operate separately. Both are essential, but each brings a different perspective.
Academic research gives us the space to explore new ideas, question established approaches and identify gaps in the law. It allows us to consider how existing legal principles might respond to emerging challenges, including climate-related displacement.
Legal practice, on the other hand, brings these ideas into contact with the realities of individual cases. Practitioners understand the difficulties of gathering evidence, preparing legal arguments and meeting the legal tests applied by judges. An argument may be persuasive in academic writing, but its practical value depends on whether it can be supported by evidence and applied within the relevant legal framework.
This is why bringing the two together is so valuable. Academic research can encourage lawyers to look at familiar legal questions differently, while practical experience can help researchers understand which arguments need further development and which difficulties arise in real proceedings. The relationship should work in both directions. Research informs practice, but practice also raises new questions for research.
A connected chain: research, practice and policy
I see this process as a connected chain with three important links: academic research, legal practice and policy. The first link is research. It helps us understand emerging challenges, explore new ideas and consider how the law might respond to situations that existing legal frameworks may not have fully anticipated. The second link is legal practice. Lawyers draw on this research to identify relevant issues, gather evidence and develop arguments that can be presented before courts and tribunals. Through this process, academic ideas are tested against the realities of individual cases and the requirements of existing law. As more cases are brought, judicial decisions may gradually help clarify how legal principles apply to climate-related harm. The third link is policy. Over time, developments in case law, supported by academic research and practical experience, may contribute to wider discussions about whether existing legal frameworks and policies adequately address the challenges arising from climate-related displacement. These discussions may, in turn, encourage the further development of existing legal protections and greater recognition of the particular difficulties faced by people seeking protection in the context of climate change and disasters.
However, this is not simply a one-way process. Court decisions can raise new questions for academic research. Challenges encountered by practitioners can reveal gaps in legal guidance or areas where further research is needed. Policy developments can also create new questions for both researchers and lawyers. Each part of the chain informs and strengthens the others. Research can inform legal practice, legal practice can contribute to the development of case law, and judicial developments may eventually influence policy. At the same time, the experience gained through litigation and the decisions reached by courts can encourage further research, fresh legal thinking and new approaches.
For me, this is what connecting the dots really means: recognising that meaningful legal development does not happen in isolation, but through continued dialogue between those who research the law, those who practise it and those who shape policy
The Toolkit as a connecting point
What makes this Toolkit particularly valuable is that it brings these different perspectives together in one practical resource. It draws on international research and guidance while addressing the specific requirements of UK immigration and human rights law. It offers practical assistance with identifying climate-related issues during client interviews, gathering country evidence, working with experts and developing legal arguments. Its case studies also demonstrate how climate-related factors may arise in real proceedings, even where a claim is not initially understood as a climate case.
In this sense, the Toolkit is more than a collection of legal information. It provides a meeting point between academic knowledge and the everyday work of legal practitioners. It also creates opportunities for further learning. As practitioners begin to use the Toolkit, their experiences may help identify new questions, improve legal arguments and contribute to future editions of the resource.
A Starting Point, Not the End
A single decision does not necessarily change the law or lead to a change in policy. Much will depend on the facts of future cases, the available evidence and how courts interpret existing legal principles. Nevertheless, I believe the Toolkit can help open a new chapter in UK legal practice. By making research and international guidance more accessible to practitioners, it may encourage the identification of climate-related issues that have previously been overlooked and support the development of carefully evidenced legal arguments.
My hope is that this will encourage more practitioners to explore the climate dimensions of their cases and, where appropriate, bring well-supported arguments before courts and tribunals. More decisions addressing these issues could, over time, contribute to changes in legal understanding and policy. For me, that is the real value of this project. Research, legal practice and policy are not separate worlds. They are connected parts of a continuing process, and the Toolkit can help strengthen the links between them.
The Power of Collaboration
I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all the wonderful colleagues who contributed to the development of this Toolkit, and particularly to Earth Refuge and Refugee Legal Support for bringing us together. It has been a real pleasure to work alongside people with different backgrounds, experiences and expertise, all sharing the same commitment to improving protection for people affected by climate change and natural disasters.
For me, this collaboration is itself an example of what the Toolkit represents: the value of bringing academic research, legal practice and policy perspectives together to achieve something meaningful.
[1] The UK Practice Toolkit: Climate, Disasters & Protection Claims is a collaborative resource developed by Earth Refuge and Refugee Legal Support. <https://refugeelegalsupport.org/publications/the-uk-practice-toolkit-on-climate-disasters-and-protection-claims>