Many of the most significant environmental problems are multinational or global in scale. This course will look at the processes by which international regimes are addressing some of these issues and the output of those processes. The course will examine a number of the formal international regimes, including the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances, the Framework Convention on Climate Change (and the Kyoto Protocol thereto), the Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention to Regulate International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna, and the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. In the process of examining these regimes and other international environmental issues, we will focus on a number of crosscutting themes, including choice of instruments (e.g., taxes, direct regulation, or informational regimes), problems of monitoring and enforcement, the possible meanings and measures of "sustainable development," conflicts between trade and the environment, and the structure and character of international negotiation processes. The course will include several situational case studies, which will require you to think strategically about how you would address actual environmental issues facing international policymakers or lawyers.

In addition to taking an in-school, open book, 3-hour final examination, each student will write up one of the case studies as part of a group with two or three other members of the class. Students also will be expected to participate actively in classroom discussions.