Sustainability, Law and the Environment

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In order to examine current trends, main dilemma’s and possible ways forward regarding the role of law for a sustainable environmental protection this course uses three perspectives:  1) the government perspective with a discussion of international environmental rulemaking and unilateral regulatory approaches; 2) the business perspective with attention to liability and voluntary approaches like Corporate Social Responsibility;  3) The victim perspective including the position of environmental non-governmental organizations, discussing inter alia procedural rights like access to information.

The problem of climate change serves as the core case for the course. Particular attention will go to regulatory instruments, ranging from traditional command and control to market-based regulatory approaches like “carbon trading”. After the course, it will be easier for students to understand the thinking of lawyers and, moreover, have a basic idea of the role that law can play - including its shortcomings - in the pursuit of sustainability.