Globalization is having profound effects on the development of law and legal systems throughout the world. These effects are particularly pronounced in the environmental field where climate change, global air pollution, depletion and contamination of water resources and other problems are spawning new approaches to law and regulations. The result has been the development of what has been described as ‘global environmental law,’ the focus of this seminar.

Globalization is having profound effects on the development of law and legal systems throughout the world. These effects are particularly pronounced in the environmental field where climate change, global air pollution, depletion and contamination of water resources and other problems are spawning new approaches to law and regulations. The result has been the development of what has been described as ‘global environmental law,’ the focus of this seminar.

The seminar explores how legal systems throughout the world are responding to environmental problems and the legal and political factors that explain similarities and differences in their regulatory policy responses. The seminar compares the different roles played in different countries by government agencies, the judiciary, and citizen groups in the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental law. Students in the seminar will use the professor’s casebook Comparative and Global Environmental Law and Policy (Aspen Publishing 2020)..

The professor seeks to inspire students to gain experience in the global environmental law field. In past years students in the seminar have written the moot court problem used for the Kingdom of Jordan’s National Moot Court Competition, participated in environmental field trips to China, Africa and the Middle East, helped draft a proposal for an environmental amendment for Maryland’s state constitution, and assisted with projects to hold foreign extractive industries accountable for environmental damage in the developing world. Five students in the 2024 seminar were awarded UMB Global Scholar grants to assist with their research on global environmental law.

Each student in the seminar will prepare a research paper on a topic selected in consultation with the professor. Those who prepare particularly outstanding papers during the seminar will be eligible to receive Fedder Scholar travel grants to present them at a future colloquium of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. In previous years outstanding students from the seminar have presented their papers at colloquia held in New Zealand, Spain, Indonesia, Norway, Scotland, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, and Finland. The 2024 Colloquium will be held in India and the 2025 Colloquium in South Africa..

Student research papers also may be used to satisfy the Advanced Writing Requirement. This seminar is open to 1Ls as a first-year elective and its credits count toward qualification for the Certificate of Concentration in Environmental Law.