The summer seminar examines the escalating crisis in international environmental law in the context of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. As global governance frameworks struggle to keep pace with accelerating ecological disruption, the seminar brings together researchers to reflect on emerging actors, shifting responsibilities, environmental democracy, and the evolving role of courts in environmental protection. Co-organised with the Center for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Law (CCEEL), the seminar creates a space to critically engage with the limits of existing legal responses while exploring new pathways for collective and institutional action. Against a backdrop of systemic strain, the programme asks what forms of legal imagination, solidarity, and practice remain available, and how they might sustain both responsibility and hope in times of ecological crisis.
9:30–10:00 Registration and coffee
10:00–10:30 Opening
Päivi Leino-Sandberg
10:30–11:30 New actors in global environmental arenas (tbc)
Lauri Peterson and/or Hermann Aubié (UEF/CCEEL)
11:45–13:15 International Climate Law: Despair, Hope and Action
Kati Kulovesi (UEF/CCEEL)
13:15–14:45 Lunch break
14:45–16:15 International Climate Law: Despair, Hope and Action
Kati Kulovesi
10:00–11:30 Intergenerational Equity: Rethinking Responsibility in International Climate Law
Tuula Honkonen (UEF/CCEEL)
11:45–13:15 Just transition and international law
Vilja Johansson (UEF/CCEEL)
13:15–14:45 Lunch break
14:45–16:15 Climate change and international courts
Annalisa Savaresi (UEF/CCEEL)
10:00–11:30 Environmental Democracy
Päivi Leino-Sandberg (ECI)
11:45–13:15 Law and Political Economy of Water
Ukri Soirila (ECI)
13:15–14:45 Lunch break
14:45–16:15 Between Hope and Disillusionment: Indigenous Mobilisation for Justice in the Transition
Dorothee Cambou (ECI)
10:00–11:30 Criminalised Climate Activism: Challenges to Democracy
Milka Sormunen (ECI)
11:45–13:15 Theory, Practice, Provocation
Tuuli Talvinko (Maailma Legal)
13:15–14:45 Lunch break
14:45–16:15 Fireside Chat & Q&A: Despair, Hope, Action
Martti Koskenniemi (ECI)
16:15–16:30 Closing
The registration period closes on 19 August 2026.
Degree students of the University of Helsinki Faculty of Law can include the seminar as an elective in their study programme. To obtain 5 credits, a minimum of 80% in-person class attendance and the submission of an essay in Moodle are required. For further information and registration, please see Sisu.
Information about Visa
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