Jolene Lin

Jolene Lin is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Faculty of Law (NUS). She is also Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law. Jolene’s research focuses on four broad issues:

• Climate Litigation as a Strategic Tool to Advance Climate Policy Goals
• Global Climate Change Law and Policy
• Environmental Law in Asia
• Transnational Environmental Legal Ordering

Jolene has published extensively on these topics in peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Environmental Law, the European Journal of International Law, and the American Journal of International Law. She regularly conducts seminars and provides consultancy services to government agencies, judicial bodies, companies and non-governmental organizations. At NUS, Jolene teaches tort law and climate change law. She received the faculty’s teaching award in 2020 in recognition of her passionate commitment to teaching.

Before joining the National University of Singapore, Jolene spent ten years at the University of Hong Kong where she was Associate Professor and Vice-Dean (International Affairs). During her time in Hong Kong, Jolene served on the Appeal Tribunal Panel (Buildings Ordinance) and the Appeal Board Panel (Town Planning). She is a founder of Urban Spring – a non-profit company dedicated to reducing plastic bottle waste – and continues to serve as a director.

Jolene grew up in Singapore and was always eager to explore the world. After completing her A levels, she pursued an LLB at the London School of Economics and Political Science where she discovered her love for international law and environmental law. She then crossed the Atlantic to read her LLM at New York University School of Law, where she also worked as a student research assistant to Professor Richard Stewart and Professor Katrina Wyman. Jolene’s time at NYU was a formative experience that encouraged her to pursue an academic career. After obtaining her LLM, Jolene returned to Singapore to pursue her professional qualifications and be called to the Singapore Bar. After pupillage and a brief stint at one of Singapore’s leading law firms, Jolene joined academia. As it frequently happens in common law jurisdictions, Jolene obtained her PhD in law (Erasmus University Rotterdam) after many years of employment as a law teacher and researcher. Jolene’s PhD thesis examined the role of global cities in making and implementing climate change laws, and was supervised by Prof. Dr. Ellen Hey.

Research Interests

• Environmental Law
• Transnational Environmental Governance
• Climate Change

Teaching

• Climate Change Law and Policy in Asia
• Tort Law