Climate Change and the Law Summer Program (Updated)
The Summer Session on Environmental Law offers a Climate Change and the Law Program consisting of three seminars between May 28-June 14, 2013. Over the course of three weeks, you can study a variety of topics related to climate change and the law. The program offers a seminar that focuses on how the European Union addresses climate change, one that focuses on U.S. states and their energy policies focused on addressing climate change, and one that focuses on the international climate change regime and ongoing negotiations. Taken together these seminars provide an overview of the current state of climate change and the law in two regions of the world.*
Please note the schedule for the 2013 Summer Session on Environmental Law is still being developed, thus courses in this program may change and times are subject to change.
Week Two
State Clean Energy Law
This seminar taught by Kyle Danish, an Associate at Van Ness Feldman, investigates how states in the United States are developing clean energy laws. It looks the legal and policy framework, as well as the practical considerations.
This seminar will be taught June 3 to June 7 from 6:30 to 9:00pm.
Week Three
European Union and Climate Change
This seminar taught by Nuno Lacasta, who is the Climate Change General-Director for the Ministry for Environment of Portugal, discusses the key elements and recent developments in the European Union's treatment of climate change.
This seminar will be taught June 10 to June 14 from 2:00 to 4:30pm.
International Climate Change Law
This seminar taught by Stephen Porter, who is a consultant and the former Director of the Climate Change Program at the Center for International Environmental Law, will provide an overview of the international response to climate change through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with a focus on the effectiveness of existing approaches and the current status of negotiations. We will cover the negotiation, structure and implementation of both the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. The seminar will also track current events and news reports that relate to climate change in order to relate these sometimes abstract concepts currently in the news. We will also explore the ongoing effort to negotiate the post-2012 international climate regime and why the effort has proved elusive despite wide agreement that human induced climate change is occurring and risks grave consequences. The seminar will examine examples of how climate change interacts with other bodies of international law (e.g., the Ozone Treaty, Human Rights, Law of the Sea). We will conclude by examining selected topics relating to climate law and policy in the United States and considering the role for law in the transition to a low-carbon future.
The seminar will be taught June 10 to June 14 from 6:30 to 9:00pm.
*While the other seminars offered during the Environmental Law Summer Session are not specifically focused on climate change, many (i.e. Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, International Institutions and Environmental Protection, Environmental Law and the US Congress, and Fracking Law & Policy) will also likely touch on climate change issues.
For more information on these seminars and obtaining a certificate or CLE credit, email summerenvironment@wcl.american.edu.
