UN Environmental Law

Catalog description

The United Nations is multifaceted with the variety of departments and programs encompassed within it. The purpose of this course is to provide students with a general understanding of how environmental issues have been addressed at the UN. During the first class, students will be assigned or will choose (still to be determined) geographic groups (i.e. G77 , EU, etc.) or countries to represent for the duration of the class. When we begin to discuss different UN environmental conferences as well as multilateral environmental agreements, students will be expected to represent their particular country or geographic group. This course will start out by providing an overview of the UN and then introduce the students to the ideas of international negotiations and global governance. Throughout the class, students will also receive electronic and/or hard copies of the UN Journal and Earth Negotiations Bulletins published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development. This will help expose the students to how advisers working for UN Missions spend their time and will give them practical exposure and experience as to what may take place in the day-to-day life of an individual employed at a UN mission.