Summer Programme on Environmental Law

Update 1: Confirmed speakers
Update 2: Confirmed study visit to the International Court of Justice

FINAL PROGRAMME AVAILABLE

Summer Programme on 

International and European
Environmental Law: Facing the Challenges?

From 25 - 29 August 2014, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in cooperation with the European Environmental Law Network and the Hague Environmental Law Facility organises its first Summer Programme on Environmental Law.

This uniquely designed and intensive one-week programme aims to provide a thorough analysis of selected issues of International and European Environmental Law and recent developments within these areas.

The programme is directed towards researchers and practitioners who, in their professional capacity, deal with international and/or European environmental law.

The 5-day programme will consist of interactive lectures by renowned experts from academia and practice, and study-visits to relevant institutions and organisations.

Topics that will be covered during the Summer Programme include among others:

Ø Tackling climate change: the quest for a new agreement;
Ø Regulating liability for environmental damage;
Ø Environmental protection under the EU-USA Trade Agreement (TTIP);
Ø The challenge of sustainable use of water;
Ø Ensuring the sustainability of renewable energy: how to avoid Indirect Land Use Change?;
Ø The EU ban on seal products: will it stand the WTO tests in appeal?

Confirmed speakers

The International and European Environmental Law Summer Programme will include a wide range of high ranking speakers from practice and academia. Notably, the Programme will feature the following speakers:

Dr. Edward H.P. Brans has worked since 2002 as a lawyer with the law firm Pels Rijcken. Before that he worked as Assistant Professor of private law at the Free University of Amsterdam, where he engaged in contract law and tort law and more particularly with the national, international and European environmental law and environmental liability laws. Also at Pels Rijcken, he is engaged in environmental, (environmental) liability and contract law.

Dr. Wybe Th. Douma is senior researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Institute and lecturer on International Environmental Law at Hague University and regular guest lecturer at several other universities. His working experience includes lecturing and advising on European and international environmental law and issues of sustainable development in the EU and its neighbouring countries, South America and Asia. He was team leader and senior legal expert in a wide range of EU environmental approximation projects, notably in Bosnia Herzegovina and Russia, and worked on numerous other EU environmental law projects dealing mainly with the relationship between national and European law. In 2009-2010, he was seconded to the Legal Department of the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, where he dealt with a wide range of EU and international environmental law issues.

Jens Hamer is senior audit manager unit EU Affairs, International Organisations and Institutions at the German Supreme Audit Institution, and lecturer EU law at the Federal University of Applied Administrative Science in Brühl, Germany. Formerly, he worked as référendaire at the General Court of the European Union and as Head of the Section European Business Law at the Academy of European Law in Trier.

Prof. Jan Jans teaches Public Law at Groningen University, is a member of the Dutch Commission on Environmental Impact Assessment, and vice-chairman of the Appeal Committee of the Netherlands Competition Authority and member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Environmental Law, Legal Issues of Economic Integration, Journal for European Environmental & Planning Law (JEEPL), Review of European Administrative Law (REALaw) and The Columbia Journal of European Law. He is a member of the Commission on Environmental Law of the IUCN and the Avosetta Group of European Environmental Lawyers. Among his many publications, the leading monograph “European environmental law. After Lisbon” (with Hans Vedder, 2012) deserves mentioning.

Prof. Johan G. Lammers was previously professor in International Environmental Law at the University of Amsterdam. He has been the Director of the Hague Forum for Judicial Expertise and legal advisor to the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he participated as a member of the Netherlands delegation in many international conferences on international environmental agreements and acted as agent of the Netherlands in cases in the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Further, Prof Lammers has been an International Legal Expert on several World Bank and other consultantancy missions to Swaziland, Mozambique, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Zimbabwe. He has contributed to a vast array of publications both as author of books and articles and as co-editor of the Yearbook of international environmental law and the Hague Yearbook of International Environmental Law. Prof Lammers area of expertise include legal aspects of transnational water and air pollution and sustainable development.

Jürgen Lefevere is Adviser on Climate Strategy and International Negotiations at the Climate Action Directorate-General of the European Commission (DG CLIMA) in Brussels. He is responsible for advising DG CLIMA in developing its strategic approach to international climate change negotiations and the international relations with third countries, and co-ordinates the European Commission task force on international climate change negotiations. He has participated in the climate change negotiations since 1998. He has played a central role in designing and implementing the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions trading system. Prior to joining the Commission in October 2003, he worked at the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD) in London.

Dr. Leonardo Massai is Legal and Policy Advisor for the Coalition for Rainforest Nations and participates in the UN climate change negotiations in that function. Furthermore, he is lecturer in EU Law, International and EU Environmental Law, Climate Change Law at Lille Catholic University in France and Ca’Foscari University of Venice in Italy. Dr. Massai is associate editor of the Carbon and Climate Law Review and has published extensively on climate change law. He obtained a Ph.D. at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Faculty of Law in Frankfurt, Germany.

Dr. Olivier Ribbelink is a Senior Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Institute. He studied International Relations and International Law at the University of Amsterdam. From 1987 until 1997, he was a lecturer in International Law at the University of Amsterdam. Amongst various other appointments, he was the project-coordinator of the 2007 Handbook International Law. He is a Board Member of the Netherlands School of Human Rights Research. From 1992-2008 he served as Secretary-General of the Alumni Association of the Hague Academy of International Law.

Prof. Nico Schrijver is Professor of International Law and Academic Director of the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University. He is visiting professor of The European Union and Cooperation with Developing Countries at the Universite libre de Bruxelles and the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. During 2010-2012 he served as the President of the International Law Association (ILA). Furthermore, he is a member and vice-chair of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration and associate member of the Institut de droit international. Among his many publications are ‘The Evolution of Sustainable Development in International Law’ (2008 and Chinese edition 2010), and Development without Destruction. The UN and Global Resource Management (2010).

Dr. Tamara Takacs is a senior researcher at the TMC Asser Institute. Previously Assistant Professor in EU Law at Europa Instituut Faculty of Law, Utrecht University (2009-2011), where she taught courses on European Institutional Law, Law of the EU (including Internal Market, competition) and International Economic Law (WTO law). Adjunct Associate Professor at American University Washington College of Law (Spring 2011) teaching a course on European Union Law. She has frequently taught as guest lecturer at law schools (Hungary, Slovenia, Washington DC, France) and presented papers on EU law and external relations law at conferences. Tamara’s research focuses on EU institutional law and external relations law (Common Commercial Policy, Transatlantic trade relations, Enlargement, ENP, Human security issues) as well as Comparative constitutional law (human rights, legislative processes, administration of justice).

Prof. Attila M. Tanzi is Full Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Bologna, Italy. He has been an External Consultant to the Legal Service of the Italian Ministries for Foreign Affairs and for the Environment, and a member of the Italian delegation to the UNGA and diplomatic conferences. He has also acted as counsel, or arbitrator, in several interstate arbitrations; in served in the panel of arbitrators under Article 8(3) of the Permanent Court of Arbitration Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes Relating to Natural Resources and/or the Environment. Attila Tanzi has been Chairman of the Expert Group on Public Participation in International Fora set up within the framework of the UN/ECE 1998 Aarhus Convention, and is Chairman of the Legal Board of the UN/ECE 1992 Convention on Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, since 2004 and, from 2004 until 2010 he has been Chairman of the Compliance Committee of the London Protocol on Water and Health.

Prof. Geert van Calster is the head of Leuven Law’s department of European and international law and a visiting professor and senior fellow at Monash University's Law faculty (Melbourne), visiting professor at the China-EU School of Law in Beijing, and a visiting lecturer at King's College, London. He is a senior fellow at Leuven's Centre for Global Governance Studies and was previously a visiting lecturer at Oxford University. Prof van Calster’s field of research include private international law /conflict of laws; WTO law; EU and international environmental law; EU economic law; and EU Institutional Law. Geert is also a practising lawyer and member of the Brussels Bar since 1999. He is the author and contributor to numerous publications on International and European environmental, and trade law.

Wouter Veening is Chairman / President of the Institute for Environmental Security. After working as policy adviser at the Dutch Ministry of the Environment, he became policy director at the Netherlands Committee for IUCN/World Conservation Union, where he dealt with the environmental policies of multilateral finance and donor institutions, such as the World Bank, IMF, the Global Environment Facility and the European Union. As co-founder and Chairman of the Institute for Environmental Security (2003) in The Hague (located opposite the Peace Palace) he now focuses on the policy and legal responses to security risks emanating from environmental degradation in key regions of the world.

Pauline Verheij is an independent consultant specialized in the investigation and prosecution of transnational wildlife crime, particularly violations of CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora). Having worked for several years as a legal advisor with the Dutch police (Serious environmental crime unit) and as a policy advisor on wildlife crime with the Dutch public prosecutors office consecutively, she joined TRAFFIC/WWF where she coordinated their tiger trade programme, being based in Malaysia. Since 2012 she runs her own consultancy EcoJust where she advises international NGOs and intergovernmental organisations on issues related to the poaching and illegal trade in endangered species. She is an advisory board member of the Elephant Action League, Global Eye, board member of the Moroccan Primate Conservation foundation and an advisor to WildLeaks, the first secure platform for wildlife crime whistleblowers.

Registration*
You can register by completing the online application form at: www.asser.nl/SummerProgrammeEEL

The deadline for application has been extended!

* Please read the Registration Information & Conditions carefully before registration (see brochure).

Contact
For more information or questions please contact educationtraining@asser.nl