News and Events

Final event of the EIEL Jean Monnet module announced

The EIEL Jean Monnet Module staff is pleased to announce that the final event to be hosted as part of the Module’s implementation, a EIEL workshop on ‘Current Issues of International Environmental Law’, will take place at the University of Siena (Italy) on 27-28 November 2023.

Hosted in collaboration with the Italian Yearbook of International Law and the Department of Law of the University of Siena, the EIEL workshop on ‘Current Issues of International Environmental Law‘ will represent the culmination of the activities of the EIEL Jean Monnet Module, which has been implemented since the summer of 2020 under the academic coordination of Prof Riccardo Pavoni.

The workshop will bring together leading experts in the field of international environmental law, including two current members of the United Nations International Law Commission (Giuseppe Nesi from the Università di Trento and Patricia Galvão Teles from Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa), André Nollkaemper (Universitet van Amsterdam), Jorge E Viñuales (LUISS), Saverio Di Benedetto (Università del Salento), Francesco Francioni (European University Institute), Francesca Ippolito (Università di Cagliari), Gemma Andreone (Institute for International Legal Studies, Italian National Research Council), Mariangela La Manna (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), and Carlo de Stefano (Università Roma Tre). It will aim to explore a series of emerging issues, some of which have already been explored under the EIEL Jean Monnet Module, that will be critical for the current and future development of international environmental law. The topics addressed by the speakers will range from the protection of persons affected by climate change-induced sea-level rise to the protection of the environmental rights of children and future generations.

The contributions to the workshop will feed into the preparation of the next volume of the Italian Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 33), which will also represent one of the main outcomes of the EIEL Jean Monnet Module as it approaches the end of its implementation phase.

The workshop will only be hosted in person, and a limited number of places are available upon registration to Matteo Agostino (matteo.agostino@2@unisi.it). The programme is available for download at this link.

New EIEL webinar with Alessandro Monti to discuss renewable energy, climate change and trade law

The EIEL Jean Monnet staff is proud to announce a new EIEL webinar, which will focus on how the interaction of climate change and trade law can promote the uptake of renewable energy. Our guest will be Dr Alessandro Monti, Assistant Professor of Sustainability and Energy Law at the University of Copenhagen (Faculty of Law).

The webinar will take place on 29 September 2023 at 14:30 / 2:30pm CEST on the YouTube channel of the EIEL Jean Monnet module. During the event, Dr Monti will discuss the arguments of his recent book “Promoting Renewable Energy: The Mutual Supportiveness of Climate and Trade Law“, which was published by Edward Elgar earlier in 2023.

The book examines the interaction between international climate law and international trade law for the promotion of renewable energy, utilising the emerging principle of mutual supportiveness. It discusses in particular the WTO jurisprudence on renewable energy subsidies, proposes specific solutions to improve the alignment between climate and trade law, and build a case for the development of climate-friendly trade policies. According to Prof Daniel Esty (Yale University), the volume takes the reader “to the center of the battle to address climate change – the policy push to establish a renewable energy economy.” Thanks to its “deep insight and careful analysis”, it represents “essential reading for trade and climate change policymakers, lawyers, scholars, and all those who care about a sustainable future.”

Alessandro Monti’s main area of research at the University of Copenhagen is the interaction between climate change and international economic law, with special focus on the energy transition. In 2021, he obtained a double-degree PhD in International Law from the Universities of Innsbruck and Padova, for which he was awarded the Herbert Tumpel prize by the Theodor Körner Foundation. Prior to his current appointment, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen and conducted visiting research stays at New York University (NYU) and University College London (UCL).

Christine Bakker to deliver two new EIEL keynote lectures on international and European climate change law

The academic staff of the EIEL Jean Monnet module is proud to once again welcome Professor Christine Bakker for two keynote lectures on international and European climate change law, which will be included in the module’s teaching programme for the 2022-2023 academic year.

This year, both of her lectures will take place in person at the Department of Law of the University of Siena, Italy. The first lecture will take place on 12 May 2022 at 10.45 CEST, and it will focus on the international context of climate change negotiations, with an emphasis on the recent evolution of climate change law from the Paris Agreement to the outcomes of the COP-27 that was held in Sharm El-Sheik. The second lecture, on 15 May 2022 (at 15.45 CEST) will instead discuss the role played by the European Union on the international stage, the main EU instruments and legal acts relating to climate change, and the evolution of climate litigation before European courts.

Christine Bakker holds a PhD in public international law from the European University Institute (EUI), Florence, and her main areas of research are human rights law including children’s rights, international environmental law, and climate change. She has published widely in these fields and has recently co-edited, with Ivano Alogna and Jean-Pierre Gauci, the volume Climate Change Litigation: Global Perspectives (Brill Publ., 2021). She previously worked at the European Commission (DG Development), as a Research Fellow at the EUI in Florence, as an Adjunct Professor at LUISS University, Rome, and as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Rome-3, and at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa.

EIEL staff announces 2022-2023 calendar of EIEL core teaching activities

With the start of the 2022-2023 spring semester approaching, the staff of the Jean Monnet Module in European and International Law (EIEL) is now able to announce the academic calendar for its core teaching activities.

The EIEL Module, now in its third year of implementation, has recently hosted the first webinar of its 2022-2023 series, featuring Dr Marie-Catherine Petersmann (Senior Researcher at the Tilburg Law School) for a presentation on regional courts and the adjudication of conflicts between environmental protection and human rights.

The core teaching activities of the EIEL Module will start on 20 February, with a series of lectures taught by EIEL Academic Coordinator Prof Riccardo Pavoni as part of the general course in European Union law offered by the Department of Law of the University of Siena, which will run from 20 February to 14 April. On 17 April, Prof Pavoni will introduce a series of fundamental notions of European environmental law. He will discuss the historical and legal evolution of this field of EU law, as well as its legal basis, objectives, sources, and key principles.

On 5 and 8 May, Prof Elisa Morgera (Director of the One Ocean Hub and Professor of Global Environmental Law at the University of Strathclyde) will dedicate two lectures to the origins and main features of international environmental law. On 12 and 15 May, the module will then feature two consecutive keynote lectures by Prof Christine Bakker (Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies), who will return to the University of Siena after her initial involvement in the project in the previous academic year, on EU law and climate change. Lastly, on 19 May, Dr Dario Piselli will conclude the course with a lecture exploring the most recent normative developments in the European regulation of biodiversity and chemicals.

In due course, additional webinars and dissemination activities may also be announced by the EIEL staff, in order to complement the teaching activities of the module.

New EIEL webinar on conflicts between environmental protection and human rights in regional courts

The EIEL Jean Monnet staff is proud to announce a new EIEL webinar, which will focus on how conflicts between environmental protection and human rights are framed and adjudicated by regional courts. Our guest will be Dr Marie-Catherine Petersmann, Senior Researcher at Tilburg Law School (Tilburg University).

The webinar will take place on 26 January 2023 at 14:30 / 2:30pm CET on the YouTube channel of the EIEL Jean Monnet module. Dr Petersmann will retrace how legal frameworks for environmental protection evolved over time and progressively merged with human rights concerns. She will problematise how this relationship was construed and argue that the conflicts that underpin it mainly remained unseen. More specifically, Dr Petersmann will critically evaluate the argumentative tropes and strategies used in the environmental case-law of regional courts to understand how conflicts between environmental protection and human rights are judicially mediated.

During the event, we will also present Dr Petersmann’s new monograph, “When Environmental Protection and Human Rights Collide: The Politics of Conflict Management by Regional Courts” (Cambridge University Press 2022). The volume has been defined “terrific and essential”, “well-argued and thought-provoking”, with an “original and compelling legal analysis” by reviewers.

Besides her role as a Senior Researcher at Tilburg University’s Law School, Dr Petersmann is currently a Resident Fellow at Istituto Svizzero in Rome for the period 2022-2023. At Tilburg University, she works as part of the ‘Constitutionalizing in the Anthropocene’ project Prior to that, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow (SNF) at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development (Utrecht) and Teaching Associate at the Strathclyde Center for Environmental Law and Governance (Glasgow).

She earned a PhD and LLM in International Law from the European University Institute (Florence) and an MA in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva). In 2022, she was awarded a Veni grant from the Dutch NWO for her project on ‘Anthropocene Legalities: Reconfiguring Relations with/in More-than-human Worlds’.

New EIEL webinar on armed conflicts and the environment with Anne Dienelt

The academic staff of the EIEL Jean Monnet module is pleased to announce that on 29 September it will host Dr Anne Dienelt for a new webinar on the protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts. The event will be the first EIEL webinar of the 2022/2023 academic year.

Dr Anne Dienelt works as a senior research fellow and lecturer at the University of Hamburg. She currently researches questions of resilience in terms of law in light of crises, such as climate change or pandemics. During the webinar, which will take place on 29 September 2022 at 15.30 CEST on the YouTube channel of the EIEL Jean Monnet Module, Dr Dienelt will present her recently-published monograph on Armed Conflicts and the Environment – Complementing the Laws of Armed Conflict with Human Rights Law and International Environmental Law (Springer 2022).

More specifically, Dr Dienelt will discuss how the protection of the environment in relation to armed conflicts can be enhanced within the existing framework of international law, through the complementary application of three fields of international law, namely the law of armed conflicts, international human rights law, and international environmental law. The webinar will also represent an additional opportunity to discuss the working paper published in January 2022 by EIEL project members Riccardo Pavoni and Dario Piselli, which assesses the history and significance of Principle 24 of the Rio Declaration and calls for the development of a comprehensive multilateral convention on armed conflicts and the environment.

The webinar will be open to all interested participants, and will be available at this link.

New keynote lectures announced: Christine Bakker on international and European climate change law

The academic staff of the EIEL Jean Monnet module is proud to welcome Professor Christine Bakker for two keynote lectures on international and European climate change law, which will be included in the module’s teaching programme for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Prof Christine Bakker, a renowned scholar of international environmental and climate change law, is currently an affiliated researcher at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy, and a visiting research fellow at the British Institute for International and Comparative Law (BIICL) in London, United Kingdom. Both of her lectures will take place in person at the Department of Law of the University of Siena, Italy. The first lecture will take place on 6 May 2022 at 10.45 CEST, and it will focus on the international context of climate change negotiations, with an emphasis on the recent evolution of climate change law from the Paris Agreement to the Glasgow Pact adopted during COP-26. The second lecture, on 9 May 2022 (at 15.45 CEST) will instead discuss the role played by the European Union on the international stage, the main EU instruments and legal acts relating to climate change, and the evolution of climate litigation before European courts.

New EIEL Working Paper on armed conflicts and the environment

The staff of the Jean Monnet Module in European and International Environmental Law (EIEL) is happy to announce the publication of a new EIEL Working Paper focusing on the topic of armed conflicts and the environment on SSRN‘s eLibrary.

The working paper, which was recently co-authored by EIEL academic coordinator Riccardo Pavoni and EIEL programme manager Dario Piselli, assesses the history and significance of Principle 24 of the Rio Declaration, which in 1992 called upon States to respect international law providing protection for the environment in times of armed conflict and to cooperate in its further development.

In particular, the paper explores how the key elements of the principle have influenced subsequent law- and policy-making processes led by institutions such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN Environment Programme, and the International Law Commission. The paper argues that while Principle 24 does not contain specific normative prescriptions, it has translated over the years into a significant and vibrant international law standard.

However, in the light of the gaps and shortcomings that continue to characterize the protection afforded to the environment under international humanitarian law, the paper emphasizes the need to develop a comprehensive multilateral convention on armed conflict and the environment, with the aim of bringing the vision of Principle 24 into completion.

The paper is available for download at this link.

Calendar of 2021-2022 EIEL core teaching activities announced

With the start of the spring semester approaching, the staff of the Jean Monnet Module in European and International Law (EIEL) is now able to announce the academic calendar for its core teaching activities.

The upcoming start of a new semester at the University of Siena will be marked by a return to full in-person teaching for the EIEL Jean Monnet Module, after a 2020-2021 academic year that was heavily impacted by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The EIEL Module, now in its second year of implementation, has recently hosted the first webinar of its 2021-2022 series, featuring Dr Riccardo Luporini of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies for a presentation on human rights-based litigation on climate change.

The core teaching activities of the EIEL Module will start on 28 February, with a series of lectures taught by EIEL Academic Coordinator Prof Riccardo Pavoni as part of the general course in European Union law offered by the Department of Law of the University of Siena, which will run from 28 February to 11 April. On 22 April, after the Easter break, Prof Pavoni will introduce a series of fundamental notions of European environmental law. He will discuss the historical and legal evolution of this field of EU law, as well as its legal basis, objectives, sources, and key principles.

On 29 April and 2 May, Prof Elisa Morgera (Director of the One Ocean Hub and Professor of Global Environmental Law at the University of Strathclyde) will dedicate two lectures to the origins and main features of international environmental law. On 6 and 9 May, the module will then feature two consecutive keynote lectures by Prof Christine Bakker (Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies), who is involved for the first time in the project, on EU law and climate change. Lastly, on 13 and 16 May, Dr Dario Piselli will conclude the course with two lectures exploring the most recent normative developments in the European regulation of biodiversity and chemicals.

In due course, additional webinars and dissemination activities may also be announced by the EIEL staff, in order to complement the teaching activities of the module.

New EIEL Webinar: Riccardo Luporini to Discuss Human Rights-based Climate Litigation

Photo credit: Michael Adams, Gardi Sugdub, Panama, 2019 (Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC 2.0)

We are proud to announce the next EIEL webinar of the 2021/2022 academic year, which will take place on 20 January 2022 at 15.00 CET. For the lecture, which will be live-streamed online through YouTube Live, we will welcome Dr Riccardo Luporini, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in International Law at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy.

Dr Luporini’s presentation will explore the growing phenomenon of human rights-based climate change litigation. The relationship between human rights and climate change is today widely recognised by civil society, states and international organisations – and litigants around the world are increasingly putting forward human rights arguments before different judicial and quasi-judicial bodies with the aim of filling the existing accountability gap in climate change law. In the webinar, Dr Luporini will try to offer a typology of this assorted set of complaints, discussing examples of failed, successful and pending cases while devoting special attention to the first Italian climate case (A Sud et al v Italy, also known as “Giudizio universale”). In addition, he will analyse the specific legal hurdles and most controversial points raised by human rights-based climate change litigation, as well as the possible future developments in this field.

Dr Luporini obtained his PhD from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna with a dissertation concerning the relationships between climate change, disasters and human rights under international law. He has been Visiting PhD Fellow at the Centre for International Law and Governance, University of Copenhagen. In addition, he has served as assistant to the Special Rapporteur on the topic “Protection of persons in the event of disasters” at the 68th session of the UN International Law Commission and as blue book trainee at the European Commission Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.

The webinar will be open to all interested participants, and will be available at this link.