Denver Law Associate Professor Annecoos Wiersema Writes About New UN Website: InforMEA

This summer, the United Nations launched a website with important implications for the future of international environmental law. InforMEA, the United Nations Portal on Multilateral Environmental Agreements brings together information relating to 17 multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) from 12 Secretariats hosted by three UN organizations and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is also open to nongovernmental observers involved in MEA information and data management. The portal will contain decisions, resolutions, and recommendations from conferences and meetings of the parties (COPs and MOPs), calendars, news and events, and certain national contacts. It will also harmonize information from across the MEAs, so that information is more easily accessible and usable. Elsewhere, I have written about the significance of COP and MOP activity. This portal will bring this activity together in one place, in easily accessible format.

Why is this move so significant? It has the potential to affect three areas of current concern to international environmental lawyers: sectoral fragmentation, the relationship between international law and domestic law, and accountability.

First, the portal might help us manage the sectoral fragmentation we see in international law, particularly in international environmental law. Many commentators have worried that connections among treaties that have substantial overlap are weak or completely lacking. This can lead to, at best, unnecessary duplication and, at worst, one subject matter treaty undermining the goals of another treaty that deals with a different subject matter. Worries about the effects of climate change mitigation efforts on biodiversity are a good example of this. This portal offers the potential for those interested to find avenues for coordination and linkages as they see what all the MEAs are working on.

Second, information that is more accessible is also more useful to national authorities. As international environmental law is increasingly connected to domestic law and implementation, this accessibility will be key. Sustainability requires recognition of local context and localized activities, as well as some international coordination of information and sharing of experience. The role of international environmental law as a clearinghouse of information is greatly enhanced by this portal.

Third, the amount of activity undertaken by the COPs and MOPs of MEAS, as well as various technical bodies, has created concern about accountability. NYU’s Global Administrative Law Project is an example of one response to this concern. This portal can enhance informal accountability because it will now be much easier to find out what COPs, MOPs, and various technical bodies are doing. The participation of nongovernmental observers is important for this, but the portal’s openness to the world at large is also key here.

Interestingly, a search on the portal under the subject category “Issues common to MEA’s” yielded no results under treaties or decisions! But maybe this portal will start to change that. How much this portal can do will depend ultimately both on how much information it has and how committed various stakeholders are to using it. But it offers real promise. International environmental lawyers, watch this space: http://informea.org/.

Annecoos Wiersema
Associate Professor

North American (Pacific) Rounds of the International Environmental Moot Court Competition to be Hosted at DU on January 28 and 29

On Friday January 28 and Saturday January 29, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law will host the North American (Pacific) Rounds of the International Environmental Law Moot Court Competition.

The winners of these rounds will go on to compete at the University of Maryland in March against teams from around the world, including teams from Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America.

Now in its 15th year, this is the largest international environmental moot court competition in the world and the College of Law is excited to be hosting these rounds.

Professor Annecoos Wiersema said, "The topic this year is very timely: addressing oil pollution and the marine environment in the context of international law. The event should be an exciting and engaging one."

If you are interested in attending to watch any of the rounds, please contact Professor Wiersema at awiersema@law.du.edu.

Autumn Semester 2010 Gets Underway: New Developments in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy Program Announced

Today marks the first day of the autumn 2010 semester at the Sturm College of Law. And as befits the beginning of the new semester, we in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law & Policy program would like to mention some of the new people, topics and events that will become part of the program this semester.

New Professors
First, we'd like to welcome several new faculty members who will be teaching in the program:

• Tom Romero, who will be teaching Water Law, was a Professor at Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, MN, before coming to DU. A Denver native and a graduate of DU's undergraduate program, his research examines the legal construction of race relations in the metropolitan American West and Global South. He is currently completing a book-length manuscript on law and race relations in post-World War II Denver.

• William Shutkin, Director of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, has held faculty positions at the University of Colorado at Boulder, MIT, and Boston College Law School. He has founded and/or led four organizations in the sustainable development field.

• Annecoos Wiersema, who will be teaching Environmental Law and Administrative Law, joins the College of Law from The Ohio State University, where she was an Assistant Professor of Law. Her primary research is in international environmental law, focusing on how legal institutions can be developed that effectively protect species and ecosystems in the face of ecological complexity and scientific uncertainty.

Professors Romero, Shutkin, and Wiersema will join the College of Law's outstanding full-time and adjunct faculty in delivering a level of education and experience widely considered to be among the best in the U.S. and the world.

Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
The College of Law has recently approved the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Certificate, which is intended to recognize a path of specialized learning within the JD program. All enrolled law students in good standing will be eligible for the ENRL Certificate. The certificate will require students to complete Administrative Law and either Environmental Law or Natural Resources Law and 12 credits in other approved environmental and natural resources courses. More information will be forthcoming shortly about the certificate.

ENRL Speaker Series
This semester will mark the beginning of the Environmental and Natural Resources Speakers Series in which leading individuals in the environmental and natural resources sectors will be speaking at the College of Law. The sessions, which will average one per month in September, October, November, January, February, March, and April, will begin on Sept. 15 from 12 noon to 1 p.m. The first speakers will be two former assistant secretaries of the U.S. Interior Department John Carver and Rebecca Watson. More information about this new series will be posted shortly.

ENRL Program and Activities Calendar
In the next several weeks, the ENRL website will include a calendar to program events and activities.