First Week Reading Assignments

First Readings for Spring 2024

This may not be an exclusive listing of all faculty members’ first assignment and class meeting notices. If you do not see a class that you are in listed below, it may be necessary to check with the faculty member.

Dates for Spring 2024

  • The form for submitting assignments will be activated on Monday, December 11, 2023.
    • Assignments will begin to be posted Monday, December 11, 2023.
  • The form for submitting assignments will be deactivated on Monday, February 5, 2024.
    • Assignments will be removed on February 5, 2024.

International Environmental Law (LAWS 666 §001)

Instructor Name(s)

Linnan

Textbook Information

free online

General Assignment Information

Please prepare the following for our first class:

 

  1. Read Mahathir bin Mohamad, Greening of the World to a Better Living: Address by the Prime Minister of Malaysia at the Official Opening of the Second Ministerial Conference of Developing Countries on Environment and Development, on 27 April 1992. Kuala Lumpur; Jabatan perkhidmatan Penerangan Malaysia, 1992 [see https://uofsclawcourses.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/LAWS666/Unit1-Mahatier.pdf]

 

plus

Flood Woman vs. Climate Doom (Part 1, courtesy of The Post and Courier)

Are the assembled developing country leadership meeting immediately prior to the 1992 Rio Meeting on International Environmental Law and Development even talking about the same problem as the Charlestonians?  Then google the just completed UNFCCC COP 28 UAE meeting and ask yourself whether it looked like either of those extremes?

 

  1. To see what is going on in the private sector, watch or skim one or the other of

 

Carbonomics:  The Future of Energy in the Age of Climate Change (Goldman Sachs Equity Research 12/11/19, as redacted);  or

 

An hour-long Youtube video from the Irwin Institute at Dartmouth entitled:

Renewable Energy Project Finance Basics with Josh Pearson ’97 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y783yhFN2bM

What do you make of this private sector approach?

  1. Please study the map and explanations at “Map of the Week: ‘Market Size By Gross Domestic Product, 1995’” (Mappenstance, U Richmond Blog 11/03/14. Would such a map still look the same today, and why? Then read and consider Climate Change and the 75% problem:  The five areas where we need innovation (Bill Gates Blog 10/17/18) and A warmer world will hurt this group more than any other:  We need to help the world’s poorest people adapt to climate change (Bill Gates Blog 03/16/21).  Meanwhile, you will note that Bill Gates used as his guide worldwide averages, but the share of specific sectors like transportation is significantly greater in the United States (compare Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, EPA 2019).

Beyond the above, we shall spend much of the first class in lecture format explaining via PPT generally the international law system and public international law’s sources of law doctrine as technical background for our course.  The issue is that, contrary to popular belief, there are some basic principles in international environmental law but nothing like the domestic environmental law regulatory system.

Syllabus

Download Syllabus