Europe and Climate Change

Course goals

After this course:

• The students gain a deep knowledge and understanding of the key EU climate legal and policy instruments covered in this course and understand the relationships between EU climate policy instruments and relevant rules of international law;
• The students can analyse the various litigation routes at national and international levels to push for measures to limit climate change, considering issues of fundamental rights, as well as limitations in practice;
• The students can collaborate in a small-group setting to prepare a presentation and lead a class discussion on a selected topic based on a specific legal instrument or case central to the content of one of the course weeks;
• The students can independently formulate and articulate a substantiated position on legal issues covered in this course;
• The students can reflect upon the student-led discussion in a reflection report.

Content

Having explored the obligations and ways in which the courts are adjudicating climate change, the third part of this course is devoted to a more in-depth analysis of how - going forward - the Union and its Member States should meet their commitments through the key EU policy instruments. These include the regulation of sectors under the Emissions Trading System (ETS), as well as sectors outside it (non-ETS), the proposed Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and the revised Renewable Energy Directive. Relationships with other fields of international law and policy, including world trade, international transport and state jurisdiction will also be explored




Place of this course within the curriculum:

• Compulsory course in master Law and Sustainability in Europe