Teaching the Art of Environmental Diplomacy

International Environmental Law is a framework of obligations, measurable norms, and consultative procedures associated with elaborating these norms and facilitating their implementation. It is through the practice of multilateral environmental diplomacy that Nations primarily establish international environmental law. These multilateral negotiations take place in the General Assembly or the Economic \u26 Social Council of the United Nations or in other treaty organizations, such as the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity or the World Conservation Congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Such environmental diplomatic negotiations are on-going and reiterative, and shape specific international law instruments, such as policy documents (“soft law” such as Resolutions or Declarations) and new international agreements (“hard law” such as treaties or protocols), or decisions made by treaty organizations (such as decisions of a competent international body, binding on the organizations and its members states). Although it is difficult for students to find employment in environmental diplomacy related positions immediately after graduation it does occur, and others work their way into such positions. Because few international governmental and non-governmental organizations, or multi-national companies, hire directly out of law school it is especially important for students to demonstrate practical experience in the field. This is difficult to do, since for the most part law schools offer doctrinal courses which provide a base of knowledge, but no practical experience. For this reason Pace Law School developed among its experiential learning courses an experiential learning opportunity for law students to study environmental diplomacy and to participate in the process of intergovernmental, multilateral environmental decision-making, and to consciously reflect upon and evaluate those experiences in a United Nations Environmental Diplomacy Practicum. The Practicum comprises a seminar taught by Pace faculty with extensive UN experience, and placement with a country diplomatic Mission at the UN. For the most part these are Missions of Small Island Developing States, or other Less Developed Countries, which benefit greatly from the work of the law student interns. Students learn first-hand how environmental diplomacy shapes the laws which they study in their public international law or international environmental law courses, and they garner unique knowledge from being inside the UN, which is useful in employment with the many international nongovernmental environmental organizations that work at and with the UN, or for law practices that must understand how decision-making functions within the multilateral environmental agreements that affect their clients. The UN Diplomacy course is often a transformative experience for students, providing experiential learning at a deeper level than most such courses. This presentation will examine both the doctrinal and experiential aspects of teaching such an experiential course. While the unusual issues raised by the unique forum will be considered, the transferability of pedagogical strategies to other teaching situations will be explored