Saving the Planet: Environmental Policy and International Law

Course Description
What are the legal and political tools that can protect the global environment? This course will investigate that question, focusing on the ways in which nations try to use international law to address environmental issues that transcend their boundaries, such as global warming, species extinction, and deforestation. We?ll explore, among other topics, controversies about the proper balance between environmental protection and economic development, differing environmental approaches of western, non-western, and indigenous nations, and the impact on environmental regulation of international free trade regimes, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). Students will be introduced to the basic structure of international law and its relationship to national law, and will read primary source legal material as well as explanatory scholarship. There will be several short papers during the semester and a final research project with oral presentation for which students, with instructor involvement, can choose their own topics. REA, WRI, PRS, MCP