Course content – International Law and Sustainability

In this module the students will receive a basic intro­duction to public inter­national law, a body of rules that govern the conduct of States and other inter­national actors (such as inter­national organisations). Two main aims will be pursued: First, to present to students the 'infra­structure' of public inter­national law - its sources and actors, its impact on inter­national relations, and its limits; Second, to illustrate how rules of inter­national law shape inter­national co­operation in important areas of inter­national life (from environ­mental pro­tection to world trade and peace-keeping).

This module offers a comprehensive over­view of environ­mental law from inter­national, European, and national perspectives. Students will explore the foundational principles and key instruments governing environ­mental protection across these inter­connected levels of governance. Key thematic areas covered include climate change, bio­diversity conservation, pollution control, and the role of the courts and other enforce­ment mechanisms. Upon completion, students will be able to analyze and evaluate complex environ­mental challenges through a multi-level legal lens.

In this module the students will be intro­duced to inter­national economic law, particularly world trade law, and its inter­sections with sustain­ability issues will be addressed, in particular environ­mental protection and labour and social standards.

This course addresses the role, achieve­ments and short­comings of inter­national law and relevant global and regional actors and institutions in achieving sustain­able ocean governance. Its main focus is on the inter­national legal frame­work governing the sustain­able use and protection of the oceans and the inter­national institutions established for the purpose of, or involved in, implementing these legal frame­works (for example, the Inter­national Maritime Organization (IMO), the Inter­national Seabed Authority (ISA) or regional fisheries manage­ment organizations (RFMOs)).

This course focuses on the inter­national regulatory approaches and inter­sections among the three pillars of sustain­able develop­ment: eco­nomic, environ­mental and social (human rights). Having developed in different contexts and by different institutions, Human Rights Law, Inter­national Environ­mental Law and Inter­national Eco­nomic Law each have unique structures, narratives and enforce­ment mechanisms. In line with the 2030 Sustain­able Develop­ment Goals, which envisage an integrative frame­work for sustain­able develop­ment, the course will also explore mechanisms and tools for the systemic integration of the three pillars and recent develop­ments in treaty law­making as an essential basis for a sustain­able world. Students will gain know­ledge of the main inter­national legal agree­ments relevant for achieving the SDGs such as environ­mental and climate protection or gender equality and learn to identify conflicts and synergies among the different legal frame­works.

In this module, the basics of scientific theory and know­ledge theory, questions and concepts from the spectrum of all majors (e.g. with regard to the under­standing of know­ledge, forms of know­ledge, genesis of know­ledge, science, history of know­ledge, truth, paradigms of science theory, changes in science, ethics of science and inter- and trans­cultural know­ledge production) are deepened and reflected on in an inter­disciplinary way. Students will, for example, deal with questions about how real phenomena are explained and under­stood differently by disciplines through their paradigms, theories and approaches.

Issues of sustain­ability law are typically of a cross-border nature. In this module the students will look at such cross-border disputes from a private law perspective. The students will deal with inter­national jurisdiction and other questions of inter­national litigation as well as will get an intro­duction into conflict of laws, with a focus on the European Union rules in these areas.

Topics of sustainability law are usually not limited to single/autonomous legal systems. In this module, students take an in-depth look at private law issues relating to sustain­ability law that are being negotiated simultaneously at different levels (national, European, inter­national, trans­national law). These issues include, amongst others, private climate lawsuits against large CO2 emitters as well as European Union directives and regulations promoting sustain­ability through private law.

In this module the students will deal with selected legal issues relating to the develop­ment of company-related sustain­ability regulation at national and European level with their current focus on supply chain monitoring and climate protection issues.

This course provides an intro­duction to the concept of law, legal methodology and the role of law in sustain­ability trans­formation. It offers a critical under­standing of the structure and functioning of inter­national, European and national law both as an important tool to steer societies towards sustain­ability and, importantly, as a constraint to such efforts. A particular focus of the course is on the inter­relation­ship between the different levels of law as well as key differences between them with respect to actors, law-making, instruments, implementation and enforce­ment from a global, regional and domestic level.

In this module, the students will deal with changing current topics in the field of trans­national environ­mental and sustain­ability law. The different topics are examined from the perspectives of public law, private law, criminal law and/or disciplines such as legal philosophy. Possible topics include current develop­ments in the field of inter­national environmental law. Thus, the students will have an opportunity to engage in depth with specific, topical issues and to contextualize the know­ledge acquired in other, more broadly oriented courses. 

In this module, scientific methods, inter­disciplinary research and ethical questions of scientific research are discussed as well as selected methods from the spectrum of the Master's programs are deepened in an exemplary and inter­disciplinary way. Students will deal with concepts, require­ments and practices as well as their respective previous under­standings of inter- and trans­disciplinary research. They learn to reflect on relation­ships between methodological approaches of different scientific disciplines and to establish these connections (using methods of integration and co­operation).