International Environmental Law and Governance are characterized by a
great variety of legal instruments with varying degrees of normativity.
Alongside the public international law instruments, the field of
transnational regulation through private actors has been growing
continuously. This seminar wants to explore how International Climate
Change Governance is exercised not only through classical international
Climate Change Law but also through norms developed by private actors.
Who, that is to say, what kind of actors take part in international climate change governance?
Through which processes do these actors influence climate change governance?
And
how are these processes transposed into legal norms that form part of
international or rather transnational climate change law?
The course
is intended not only for law students but for students of other, related
fields (see below). It lives of its interdisciplinarity. Because the
objective of the course is to identify the contributions of various
actors to international climate law making, interdisciplinary
perspectives are crucial. The actors in question might be scientific
institutions, cities, indigenous communities etc.
The participants
from various scientific backgrounds will receive a brief introduction to
Public International Law as well as into the more specific field of
international Environmental Law and Climate Change Law. They will then
be introduced to the transnational legal methodology, which allows for a
problem-oriented analysis of Climate Change Governance.
The
objective of the class is to give students the opportunity to develop an
independent research question in the field delineated above. The idea
is that research-based learning gives students a better chance to
understand a field of study. This means that the teacher adapts to the
research interests of the students, but also that he gives the necessary
support to help students navigate the research field.
The goal of
the seminar is for every student to contribute to a collection of small
essays on their research results with the objective of publication.
The seminar will take place bi-weekly (every two weeks) on Friday afternoon from 15:00 (c.t.) till 18:00 (c.t.).
The current plan is to have in person classes for the first and the last sessions. The rest of classes will be held online.
If you have any questions regarding the seminar, please do not hesitate to contact me:
vinken@mpil.de