LAW 438: International Environmental Law and Policy

Quarter: Spring 2022
Instructor: Parsons

This course examines how society manages-–or fails to manage-–environmental issues that fall beyond the authority or capability of one national government. Class sessions will be divided roughly equally between discussion of cases – specific international environmental issues-–and discussion of general and conceptual topics that cut across specific cases. Cases will include extended consideration of current issues in the international management of global climate change, plus briefer discussions of some or all of stratospheric ozone depletion, long-range air pollution, protection of biological diversity, and management of global fisheries. Conceptual sessions will include discussions of the historical development and causal structure of global environmental problems; of the conceptual foundations of international politics and international law; and of the common functions required for governance of any international environmental issue, e.g., interpretation and assessment of scientific knowledge, negotiation, establishment and management of international organizations, implementation of international commitments, and monitoring, reporting, and verification of compliance. Time permitting, the course may include some discussion of linkages of environment to other international issues, e.g., trade, economic policy, security, and development. Note this course is on the Law School semester schedule.