Political Sciences and International Security

GIANFRANCO GABRIELE NUCERA

The aim of the Course is to develop skills and understanding of the international system to combat climate change, framed within the international and national legal framework on environmental protection, to train people capable of interacting in the field of study, research, and professional activities on the main topics related to this discipline. In addition, the Course aims to provide the methodology for applying knowledge of international environmental law to analyze contemporary global legal dynamics.

The Course intends to provide students with the tools to develop autonomous critical skills for collecting and interpreting relevant data and creating connections with related subjects in their studies.

A general prerequisite is the basic knowledge of international law to better understand the contents and evolution of international environmental law and the legal regime on combating climate change. Teachers will make auxiliary materials available for this purpose.

The course program stands out with its division into three parts, each offering a comprehensive understanding of international environmental law and its relationship with sustainable development. The first part is dedicated to studying international environmental law, deepening the evolution of this sector and its relationship with sustainable development, and the human right to a clean, safe and sustainable environment. In this phase, the sources of international environmental law, the responsibility and liability regimes, the dispute resolution and compliance mechanisms, the protection of areas beyond national jurisdiction as well as the environment during armed conflict, and the institutional aspects of the international governance of the environmental sector will be discussed. In-depth lectures will focus on the significant decisions of international courts and arbitrations on ecological protection and sustainable development. The second part will deepen the international legal regime on tackling climate change, starting from the importance of climate issues in the global context to analyze the substantive and procedural obligations foreseen by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and subsequent agreements (Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement). In addition, there will be a focus on the relationship between the legal regime on climate change and other areas of international law (human rights, migration, international trade). In-depth lectures will analyze the human rights-based approach to climate litigations. In this sense, attention will be devoted to the judicial practice of national, regional, and international courts and the UN treaty bodies on climate change issues.
The third part aims to deepen, in the first phase, global environmental issues, the paradigm of planetary boundaries, the concept of sustainable development and environmental sustainability, to then treat the principles of environmental law within the European and national regulatory framework and the evolution of institutional governance, national and European, in environmental matters.
The One Health approach will be deepened, as a governance model promoted by the main international organizations and by the European Union, which recognizes the interdependence between human health, animal health, biodiversity, and ecosystem integrity as a prerequisite for addressing the global challenges of the climate and environmental crisis in an integrated way.
It will address, also through seminar-based insights, on the one hand, the convergence of the corpus of environmental law towards an improvement of the instruments aimed at ensuring compliance with environmental regulations, through the innovation of traditionally dissuasive instruments, such as criminal law (the European and national discipline on so-called eco-crimes, which introduces new types of offenses also in the matter of fluorinated greenhouse gases and substances that deplete the ozone layer), the reorganization of the public technical-administrative action of controls (establishment of the national system of environmental controls pursuant to Law no. 132/2016), and the connection of action instruments traditionally pertaining to the sectors of digitalization (Artificial Intelligence) and defense, such as space, to environmental purposes (Copernicus Programme and its related operational services for the monitoring of the atmosphere, climate change, land, sea, and oceans, as well as for emergency management and security).
On the other hand, attention will be focused on the topic of the ecological transition, going into the specific details of the themes: nature restoration, protection of water resources, impacts of climate change on natural and socio-economic systems, circular economy, energy transition, and overexploitation of environmental resources. The related European and national regulatory frameworks for energy and climate will be analyzed, entering into the merits of the emission trading system, the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) in light of the more ambitious targets represented at the European level with the European Green Deal, evaluating their contribution to the achievement of decarbonization, climate neutrality, and resilience objectives.
The relationships with national and international security issues of some particularly sensitive environmental sectors will be highlighted, such as that relating to critical raw materials, and mention will be made of the main international cooperation initiatives between institutions aimed at increasing the effective and homogeneous implementation of environmental law. Finally, the topic of access to environmental information, including climate data, public participation in decision-making processes, as well as access to environmental justice, will be deepened.

G. Cordini, P. Fois, S. Marchisio, Diritto ambientale. Profili internazionali, europei, comparati, IV ed., Giappichelli, Torino, 2024, pp. 1-147 (Capp. 1, 2);

S. Laporta, G.G. Nucera, G. Rak, F. Zappacosta (a cura di), Clima e dintorni. Giustizia ambientale e lotta al cambiamento climatico, Albeggi Edizioni, Roma, 2022;

D. Bodansky, J. Brunnée, L. Rajamani, International Climate Change Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017, 118-250; 295-349 (Capp. 5, 6, 7, 9);

Eventuali ulteriori materiali di approfondimento verranno indicati dai docenti durante il corso.

The course provides lectures and laboratories aimed at acquiring methods of analyzing the contents of the subject and in-depth study of specific areas of interest in contemporary environmental law. Teaching through lessons has the advantage of communicating essential information directly and engagingly. Furthermore, it offers the possibility of interaction with the speaker through questions and comments. The laboratory experiences complete the training through the analysis of case studies. The course does not foresee compulsory attendance, but the active participation of students during the lessons is helpful in preparation for the exam and constitutes one of the elements considered for the assessment.

In-person participation

Oral test: the test consists of an discussion on the program's topics.

Ongoing evaluation: only for attending students, it is possible (but not mandatory) to take an intermediate test that will take place during the lessons on the dates that will be announced at the beginning of the course on the Professors page. It will be a one-hour test comprising three open-ended questions.

For attending students only, the evaluation of the third part of the teaching program may consist (therefore not mandatory) of a discussion of a paper presented during the exam about one of the topics covered during the lessons, alternatively in a discussion concerning the materials provided.

The questions will cover the topics included in the course programme.