The Hague, Netherlands

International and European Environmental Law: Making it Work

After a general introduction on the effectiveness of environmental instruments, and compliance and enforcement mechanisms, the different environmental regimes will be analysed. The focus will be on factors that contribute to the success of these regimes - or lack thereof, and on the role of private actors in addition to or instead of government action. Towards the end, the pros and cons of different approaches (classical binding norms, voluntary approaches and mixed approaches), compliance mechanisms, monitoring mechanisms and dispute settlement regimes will be revisited. These topics will be discussed from an international law perspective on the one hand, and an EU perspective on the other hand.

The Summer Programme will also address environmental protection as a part of sustainable development. Notably, it will cover the implementation of the SDGs, and of the sustainability chapters in international trade agreements, including the planned Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

At the end of the one-week programme, the 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.

Target group

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.

Course aim

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.

Fee info

EUR 1495: Regular
(This fee includes lectures, study materials, study visits, water/tea/coffee and lunch during working days, a reception and an opening dinner)
EUR 895: NGOs/(PhD) students
(This fee includes lectures, study materials, study visits, water/tea/coffee and lunch during working days, a reception and an opening dinner)