International Economic and Environmental Law

In recent decades, environmental concerns have gained significant weight in States' political agendas. The reason lies in the global and transnational dimension of most compelling environmental issues (e.g, transboundary air pollution, the exploitation of international watercourses, climate change or loss of biodiversity). To address these new challenges, States increasingly resorts to measures that, in the pursuit of environmental interests, have a significant impact on their international economic relations, challenging the pursuit of a closer integration with other economies.



Against this background, the course explores how the legal regimes established under international agreements on the protection of foreign investment and trade liberalisation may affect domestic environmental policies. The first part is dedicated to international environmental law and aims at deepening the knowledge and understanding of the main multilateral environmental agreements. The second part opens to the study of international investment and trade law: the objective is to define the fundamental pillars of these disciplines and, also through the study of the case law of international courts and tribunals, understand how compliance with relevant agreements can promote or hinder environmental protection, in particular policies addressing climate change.

The course aims to deepen students' legal education focusing on specific areas of international law, integrate the academic background in other disciplines, and provide useful tools to develop a critical approach to the study of international economic relations.

At the end of the course, students will be able to properly understand how participation in economic and environmental agreements may limit States' leeway in defining their domestic policies. Through the analysis of main treaties and relevant practice of international courts or tribunals, students will acquire the necessary tools to: a) identify and apply in concrete cases international principles and rules governing economic relations, environmental protection, and the fight against climate change; b) identify and resolve situations of overlap or conflict between rules set out in these different legal regimes. Students will acquire the ability to identify the legal framework applicable to individual concrete cases, to evaluate such cases through a correct interpretation and application of the relevant rules, and, finally, to adequately expose and argue legal issues through the correct use of legal methodology and terminology