Background

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity, centered around 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals address critical global challenges – from poverty to inequality, climate change, sustainable development, access to justice, and effective, accountable and inclusive institutions.

Legal education, as a vital component in shaping the values, knowledge and skills of future leaders, plays a critical role in advancing the SDGs. What and how we teach at law schools influences how future lawyers, judges, policymakers and academics understand and address various complex and interrelated challenges facing our world today.

However, the global commitment to the SDGs’ realization is facing headwinds. Slow progress in meeting the SDG targets (including due to Covid and conflicts), polarization, geo-political divides, tariff wars and recent policies of the new United States administration signal a period of uncertainty for the SDG agenda. At this critical juncture, it is imperative to renew efforts to embed sustainable development thinking across disciplines, particularly within legal education.

Against this background, Macquarie University Environmental Law Research Centre and University of Southern Queensland’s School of Law and Justice are co-organizing a workshop that will explore integration of the SDGs in law curriculum.

Objectives

This workshop aims to explore how legal education can more effectively integrate the SDGs across curricula and teaching practices. It seeks to bring together legal academics, law unit convenors and curriculum developers to reflect on current practices, share innovative approaches, and collaboratively identify pathways for embedding SDG-oriented content into law units and broader legal education frameworks.

Through structured discussions and breakout sessions, participants will be encouraged to consider how their teaching and unit design can engage with sustainability, equity, environmental governance, access to justice and other cross-cutting issues captured within the SDGs.

Key themes

The workshop will cover the following themes:

Understanding the role of law and legal education in achieving the SDGs: Exploring how law and legal education contribute to (or hinder) the advancement of the SDGs.
Curriculum innovation: Identifying strategies for embedding SDG-relevant content into both compulsory and elective law units.
Pedagogical approaches: Exploring effective teaching methodologies for addressing complex, interdisciplinary, and real-world sustainability challenges within the classroom.
Institutional perspectives: Discussing the role of law schools, faculties, and universities in promoting sustainability and the SDGs through education, research, and community engagement.
Challenges and opportunities: Reflecting on institutional, political, and structural barriers to integrating the SDGs into legal education.

Format

The workshop will be held in person and will follow a participatory format designed to foster collaborative dialogue and peer learning. It will include three substantive sessions, including break-out group discussions.

Expected outcomes

The workshop is intended as a platform for dialogue, learning, and practical reflection. Expected outcomes include:

Increased awareness of the relevance and value of the SDGs in legal education
Identification of good practices and gaps in current curriculum approaches
Strengthening of networks among legal academics interested in sustainability
Development of a Policy Brief compiling ideas, examples and recommendations from the workshop
Foundation for future collaboration within and beyond Macquarie on sustainability in law
Explore participation in regional and international forums, including the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development 2026

Who Should Attend

The workshop is open to:

Legal academics involved in teaching or curriculum development
Law unit convenors and tutors
Education designers and learning and teaching staff
Researchers working on law, sustainability or SDG-related topics
HDR candidates and early-career researchers interested in sustainability or teaching pedagogy

Please note that registration closes at 11:55pm on Friday, 18th July 2025.