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About

I am passionate about climate change justice and sustainability education. The climate crisis is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Climate change litigation has gained considerable momentum, challenging the boundaries of human rights at the intersection of law and science. I have introduced climate change litigation in my teaching as courts have become critical spaces where the evolution of law and human rights becomes manifest. As emerging human rights advocates, students need to be enabled to respond to the challenges of the climate change crisis.

Prior to my interest in climate change justice and sustainability education, I followed my research interest in transitional justice and human rights. I pursued my doctoral research at the Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster, where I was awarded my PhD in International Law (Transitional Justice and Human Rights).

I also hold an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex. Prior to that, I received my legal education at the Universities of Geneva (Switzerland) and Freiburg (Germany) and through professional practice in the justice administration (Berlin). After qualifying as a lawyer, I practised law as an attorney in a private law firm for several years.

In addition, I have been engaged in human rights and humanitarian work with a range of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including work for the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Uganda, for Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l´Homme (FIDH) in Rwanda and for the FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN) in Germany.

Prior to working as a Senior Lecturer at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ, I have been teaching human rights and global justice related courses at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Leiden University College, and the University of Ulster, Belfast.

As a human rights teacher and researcher, I am concerned with and work on the disproportionate impact of climate change on vulnerable groups, the protection of socioeconomic rights in contexts of transitions from conflict to peace and environmental peacebuilding.

I enjoy the collaboration with colleagues from across the university as we develop an interdisciplinary module on the Global Climate Emergency.

As I work at the intersection of human rights law and science in the context of climate change and sustainability education, my work revolves around two principal questions: How can law and human rights be used and developed to address climate change and related global environmental crises? How can students become climate competent lawyers and human rights advocates?

Climate change is a global crisis. It is vital to be in dialogue with colleagues and students across the globe. I am a mentor in the ASAP Fellowship scheme of Yale University’s Global Justice Program and a member of the Executive Board of the Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI).

My teaching interests are concerned with human rights and transitional justice, inequality and social justice. My teaching also includes the right to health and the political economy of crime.

My primary research interests are centred around the question on how socio-economic rights and social justice frameworks, such as the capability approach (Sen, Nussbaum), can address social inequalities, with a particular focus on societies confronted with the demands of transitional justice.

Teaching

Sheffield Institute of Law and Justice

College of Social Sciences and Arts

I work at the intersection of human rights law and science in the context of climate change and sustainability education. Considering scientific evidence, my research examines how human rights can be used to effectuate change and to address the climate change crisis. I use comparative legal analysis and interdisciplinary methods.

I am particularly interested in exploring the emerging paradigm of earth system law. Earth system law is defined "as an innovative legal imaginary that is rooted in the Anthropocene’s planetary context and its perceived socio-ecological crisis. Earth system law is aligned with, and responsive to, the Earth system’s functional, spatial and temporal complexities; and the multiple earth system science and social science-based governance challenges arising from a no-analogue state in which the Earth system currently operates." (Kotze and Kim, 2020, 464).

Furthermore, "Earth system law therefore offers: (i) an interdisciplinary analytical framework to better understand and respond to the legal dimensions of earth system governance; (ii) the normative foundations to govern the full spectrum of Earth system relationships in a way that promotes planetary integrity and justice in their fullest sense; and (iii) the legal means to facilitate transformative earth system governance for long-term sustainability." (ibid.)

Subject area

Human Rights and Social Justice

Courses

LLM/MA Applied Human Rights

Modules

• Applied Human Rights Dissertation (LLM/MA)
• Exclusion, Rights and Justice (BA)
• Human Rights and Legal Scholarship: Climatizing Human Rights (LLM)
• Human Rights in Times of Global Crises: Protecting the Most Vulnerable (LLM/MA)

Ï㽶ÊÓƵ

• Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice
• Social and Economic Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Institute

Bundschuh, T. (in preparation). Book chapter on the Climate Crisis, Pregnancy and the Right to a Healthy Environment. (Editor: Madhumita Pandey. Publisher: Springer).

Bundschuh, T. (in preparation). Book chapter on corporate climate human rights due diligence for the European Yearbook on Human Rights 2025 (Editors: Philip Czech, Lisa Heschl, Gerd Oberleitner, Karin Lukas, Manfred Nowak and Hannes Tretter. Publisher: Brill).

Publications

Other activities

Professional Affiliations:

Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP), UK chapter, Trustee.

Advance HE (formerly Higher Education Academy), Fellowship (FHEA).

Association of Human Rights Institutes (AHRI). Executive Board Member.

Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA), Human Rights Working Group. Member.

International Law Association (ILA), UK Branch. Member.

Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA). Member.

Yale Global Justice Program, ASAP Fellowship. Mentor.

Journals:

I am peer reviewer for several academic journals.

Postgraduate supervision

PhD supervision in progress:

Jahanara Rowell: “Qualitative Exploration to Address the Psychosocial Needs of Refugee Children in the UK.”

Over 40 Applied Human Rights Masters supervisions completed, including:

Arooj Abbasi: “Climate Change-Induced Floods in Pakistan: Human rights implications for women.”
Highest Mark in the Applied Human Rights Dissertation Module Prize (2024)

Jehannara Mohideen: “The Judicial Response to a Refugee Child’s Rights to Reunite with Families Still Abroad: Can this be an eye opener for UK policy makers?”
Dr Martin Luther King Human Rights Prize (2024)

Oghenero Ajantana: “Addressing Climate Change and Environmental Pollution Through Constitutionally Guaranteed Rights to a Clean and Healthy Environment: Nigeria as a case study.”
Dr Martin Luther King Human Rights Prize (2023)

Ayah Mahmoud: “Artificial Intelligence and Legal Decision Making: Is there a risk of human rights violations such as errors of due process and the perpetuation of systemic discrimination?”
Dr Martin Luther King Human Rights Prize (2022)