Dr Laura Mai

Bio

Laura Mai is a postdoctoral researcher working within the Constitutionalizing in the Anthropocene project at the Department of Public Law and Governance at Tilburg University.

Laura earned her PhD from King's College London, where she was member of the Centre for Climate Law and Governance. In her doctoral thesis, Laura investigated how local administrations and financial institutions have become enrolled in the processes of change which are necessary to reach the goals set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

Laura’s research interests cover the following areas: 

• climate change law, specifically the Paris Agreement;
• the "Anthropocene" and its import on legal scholarship and praxis;
• legal multiplicity;
• transformation thinking; and
• socio-legal theory and methods. 

Expertise

In her current research, Laura investigates how ways of thinking and doing law are becoming reconfigured under conditions of the unfolding climate crisis.

Specifically, Laura engages with the following questions:

• Which demands does the climate crisis make on law?
• How can law respond to these demands?
• And what does the climate crisis mean for law, in particular the techniques which law mobilises and the theoretical foundations upon which it is based?

Laura approaches these question from a socio-legal perspective that draws on ethnographic methods and works across theoretical registers from the social sciences and the humanities. In so doing, Laura’s research moves between empirical materials and conceptualisation to give visibility to the multiple ways in which legal forms are done and known. 

Teaching

Laura lectures on the following modules: 

• Global Law Bachelor: Perspectives on Law
• Complexities of Sustainability 

In addition, she supervises Bachelor and Master theses in the areas of environmental and climate change law and governance. 

Courses

• GLB: Perspectives on Law

Collaboration

Laura is a qualified English solicitor and has worked for international organisations, including the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.

She is alumna of the Cluster Transformation supported by Heinrich-Böll Foundation Berlin, research fellow of the Earth System Governance Project and member of the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment. 

Highlights

Prizes

• King's College London Outstanding Thesis Prize 2022-23

Scholarships and grants

• Modern Law Review Scholarship 2021-22
• UK ESRC PhD Studentship 2018-21
• King’s College London Dickson Poon Research Student Scholarship 2017-18

Recent publications

1. Measuring it, managing it, fixing it? - Data and rights in transnatio…

   Mai, L. (2024). Measuring it, managing it, fixing it? Data and rights in transnational and local climate change governance. Transnational Environmental Law, 1-23. Advance online publication.

2. Navigating transformations - Climate change and international law

   Mai, L. (2024). Navigating transformations: Climate change and international law. Leiden Journal of International Law. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/leiden-journal-of-international-law/article/navigating-transformations-climate-change-and-international-law/30066AF97A7F01F3E7D2EAB8B0E4D7AA

3. What is the climate? - Notes on a critical legal methodology

   Mai, L. (2023). What is the climate? Notes on a critical legal methodology. Tilburg Law Review, 28(1), 20-25.

4. Navigating transformations - Multiple legality in the Paris climate r…

   Mai, L. (2022). Navigating transformations: Multiple legality in the Paris climate regime. [Doctoral Thesis, King's College London].

5. Orchestrating global climate governance through data - The UNFCCC sec…

   Mai, L., & Elsässer, J. P. (2022). Orchestrating global climate governance through data: The UNFCCC secretariat and the global climate action platform. Global Environmental Politics, 22(4), 151-172.