Introduction to Environmental Issues at the United Nations

The United Nations is multifaceted entity with a large variety of departments and programs encompassed within it. This course will provide students with a general understanding of how environmental issues have been addressed at the UN. During the first class, students will be assigned to geographic groups (i.e., G77 , EU, etc.) or countries that they will represent for the duration of the class. When we begin to discuss different UN environmental conferences as well as multilateral environmental agreements, students will represent their particular country or geographic group. This course will start out by providing an overview of the UN and then introduce the students to the ideas of international negotiations and global governance. Throughout the class, students will also receive electronic and/or hard copies of the UN Journal and Earth Negotiations Bulletins published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development. This will help expose students to how advisers working for UN Missions spend their time and will give them practical exposure and experience as to what may take place in the day-to-day life of an individual employed at a UN mission. The class will take time to visit the UN.

Open to lawyers, judges, interested professionals, and select students from around the world June 23-27, 2014. Registration for this course is now closed.

Instructor: Amy Mehta (1:00-4:00 pm at the Fred French Building in Manhattan)

[Summer students visiting the UN in 2013]