In the academic year 2024/2025, this course will not be streamed.

International Environmental Law is a branch of public international law that focuses on addressing global environmental issues by regulating the behaviour of states, international organizations, and other actors such as transnational corporations. It is based on a broad set of policies (concepts and principles) which have been developed and used since the late 1960s. These include the non-harm principle, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, the polluter-pays principle, or the principle of sustainable development, to name but a few. Based on these foundational policies, more specific legal regimes have been adopted which tackle particular problems, such as marine pollution, ozone depletion, climate change, loss of biodiversity or chemical and hazardous waste.

This graduate-level course introduces you to both the foundations of international environmental law (which in addition to the mentioned policies covers the history of this branch of public international law, its sources and main actors) and provides you with an overview of a selected number of specific legal regimes (including, for instance, the UN climate regime, the regime protecting biodiversity, or the regimes addressing marine pollution). It also addresses cross-cutting issues such as the effective implementation and enforcement of international environmental law, the adoption of international environmental law as a perspective on other branches of public international law (such as, human rights, humanitarian law, or investment arbitration), or the role of science in international environmental law.

The examination for this course consists of a central written exam of 120 minutes.

The learning objectives for this course are the following:

- identify, interpret, and apply relevant core principles, norms, and standards to legal environmental problems;

- compare, critically analyse and assess the norms and policies adopted in different areas of international environmental law, the institutional structures they create, and the manner of their enforcement;

- identify, examine and appraise in independent self-study relevant literature, legal bases and state and institutional practice on current issues in international environmental law, such as climate change and human rights or science and the law;

- discuss the knowledge acquired in class and through independent self-study with peers;

- collectively explain and critically evaluate the studied current issues in international environmental law in presentations and group exercises to other course participants.

All documents will be made available on moodle.