90-702, International Environmental Law And Policy
12 units
Prerequisites: None
Delivery Format: On-Campus
Description: Global environmental problems -- climate change, stratospheric ozone destruction, species extinction and loss of biodiversity, and the contamination of air, land and water -- affect the lives of every person on earth today as well as of future generations. For the first time in history, human economic activity, and our ever-increasing population and consumption, threaten to surpass the ecological limits if the earth. This course examines the range of global and multinational environmental problems, and the international treaties and agreements, institutions, mechanisms and policies developed to address them, taking into account the socioeconomic and geopolitical contexts and overarching issues such as balance between environmental protection and economic development, and between international regulation and national sovereignty. Topics to be covered include the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development; Agenda 21 and sustainable development; ozone depletion and the Vienna Convention and the Montreal and subsequent protocols to the convention; transboundary air pollution and water pollution; marine pollution, the conservation of living marine resources and the UN Law of the Sea Convention; global warming and the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and the Fourth and Fifth Conferences of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention, held in Buenos Aries and 1998 and Bonn in 1999 respectively; access to fresh water; Toxic and Hazardous Substances and the Basel Convention; Chemical Pollutants; Nuclear weapons, waste disposal and power plant safety and environmental damage and the Convention on Nuclear Safety and other instruments; protection of wildlife and biodiversity, including Conventions on Biodiversity, wildlife conservation, and Trade in Endangered Species; habitat protection, including forests, wetland, and cultural heritage sites; Desertification; and Antarctica. Crosscutting issues such as the relationship between international and environmental law and international trade, human rights, national security, and international finance and investment, will also be addressed.
Last modified on May 31, 2006
