Summer Programme on International and European Environmental Law: Making it Work

From 29 August – 2 September 2016, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, in cooperation with the European Environmental Law (EEL) Network and the Hague Environmental Law Facility (HELF), are organising the Third Summer Programme on International and European Environmental Law.

At the 2015 climate conference in Paris, 195 countries adopted a legally binding agreement to limit the rise of global average temperatures. Making this agreement work in practice is the next challenge.

The review system under the Paris Agreement will be of key importance in order to ensure that the parties’ commitments to bring down greenhouse gas emissions suffice to reach the targets, and are adequately implemented. Non-state actors like cities, regions, businesses, investors and civil society groups also play an important role in this respect.

Programme
This year’s Summer Programme will therefore focus on how to make environmental regimes more effective in practice, and on the important role non-state actors can play in achieving this. At the end of the one-week programme, participants will be able to draw lessons from the different regimes and instruments, to identify ways of making optimal use of existing systems, and suggest options for future improvements and enhanced coherence in international and EU environmental regimes. By focusing on making international and European environmental law work, insight is gained into topics such as:

• The effectiveness of international and European environmental law and other instruments;
• Different compliance regimes;
• Enforcement and dispute settlement systems;
• The role of different state and non-state actors;
• Options for future improvements.

>>Download the final programme (including speakers' names)

Programme updates

• Confirmed speaker: Leonardo Massai, Legal and Policy Advisor on Climate Change
• Confirmed speaker: Dr Lorenzo Squintani, University of Groningen
• Confirmed speaker: Pieter de Pous, Policy Director at European Environmental Bureau
• Confirmed speaker: Prof. Dr Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Queen Mary University of London
• Confirmed speaker: Joyeeta Gupta, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research
• Confirmed speaker: Jacob Werksman, Principal Adviser to DG Climate Action at the European Commission
• Confirmed speaker: Anton van Elteren, Senior Environmental & Social Officer at FMO
• Confirmed speaker: Jens Hamer, Senior Audit Manager Unit EU Affairs, German Supreme Audit Institution

Study visit
The role of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the enforcement of international environmental law will be highlighted during a visit to this UN body at the Peace Palace in The Hague. In preparation of the visit, some of the recent environmental case law of the ICJ will be discussed.

Target audience*
This year’s Summer Programme aims to attract professionals from the public and private sector, as well as NGOs, interested in or working with environmental protection and/or sustainability issues. Furthermore, the programme is open to (PhD) students and other academics that want to deepen their knowledge in international and EU environmental law. 

*For those participants with a non-legal background, or those that want to refresh their knowledge, two extensive online lectures on international and EU law respectively are offered in the e-learning environment of the Asser Institute.

More detailed information about the Summer Programme can be found here.  

Application
Registration is now closed for the 2016 programme.

Fee: € 1495 (regular), € 895 (NGOs/(PhD) students)