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School of Oriental and African Studies
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Dr Philippe Cullet is currently the course convenor for the following post-graduate courses:
For enquiries about doctoral supervision (PhD) at SOAS, please contact Dr Philippe Cullet by email. Please enclose a copy of your research proposal, your
curriculum vitae and your most recent or most extensive written contribution to date.
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Climate Change Law and Policy
This course is offered to SOAS students on any of the LLM or MA in Law programmes.
Description
This course complements the existing offering in environmental law and offers a more focused course on one of the most sensitive environmental issues of our time. It seeks to provide a broad analytical view of the problem of climate change law and policy in its broader context. The course will first examine a number of background topics as well as the main international legal instruments that constitute international climate law and policy. This will include an examination of the underlying principles of climate change law and policy, an introduction to the UN Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, a focus on specific legal issues arising the context of the UN regime such as compliance and liability as well as an analysis of more specific problems such as regional approaches and relations between climate change law and other areas of law such as trade law. The course will then move on to examine a number of specific problems arising in the context of the law and policy response to climate change both concerning mitigation and adaptation. Specific problems examine will include human rights implications, agriculture and climate change, land-use, forests and biodiversity and climate change, energy and transport.
Objectives
The course aims to provide a comprehensive survey of the developments of law and policy in relation to climate change. The course will critically examine interlinkages between normative and substantive developments in a number of law and policy fields relating to climate change including trade, investment, liability and redress, adaptation and development. It will primarily adopt an international perspective but will also draw on regional and country case studies. The latter will provide the basis for comparing the ongoing development of climate change law and policy in countries of the North and South.
Students on completing the course will be able to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of and familiarity with the most salient issues within climate related law and policies. They will be able to show familiarity with key legal and policy developments across such a broad range: energy sector, marine, insurance and liability, human rights, adaptation and finance mechanisms. This will give any student an advantage in gaining employment as employees within law firms, governments, businesses and non-state actors seek climate literate candidates to fill this new section of the job market. |
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Intellectual Property and Development
This course is offered to SOAS students on any of the LLM or MA in Law programmes.
Description
The introduction of an intellectual property rights related agreement in the context of the World Trade Organization has had tremendous implications worldwide. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) adopted in 1994 is only one of several important WTO treaties and only one of many intellectual property rights treaties. It has, however, been instrumental in bringing intellectual property rights to the centre stage of policy-making in a great number of developing countries.
This course examines the intellectual property rights regime in its broader environment, with particular emphasis on the situation of developing countries. It endeavours to analyse intellectual property issues in the context of sustainable environmental, economic and social development.
The first part of the course is devoted to an introduction to the basic concepts underlying the development of intellectual property rights in national and international law. This includes an introduction to the conceptual foundations for intellectual property protection and the basic relevant treaties in the field.
Following this general part, the course analyses intellectual property within the broader social, environmental and economic framework in which it falls. In this context, it focuses on a number of issues of particular importance to developing countries. These include:
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Environment, including the link between environmental treaties and patents, as well as benefit-sharing regimes
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Biotechnology, in particular agro-biotechnology and life patenting;
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Agriculture, including the consideration of farmers’ rights and plant breeders rights (International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants – UPOV);
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Traditional knowledge, including sui generis protection and the relevance of existing intellectual property rights (patents, copyright, geographical indications) for the protection of traditional knowledge;
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Medical patents, including in particular issues of access to medicines, the impacts on health and pharmaceutical policies in developing countries and the human right to health;
Case studies in the above-mentioned areas or other areas are also considered. These include in particular the consideration of individual developing countries’ implementation of their obligations under the TRIPS Agreement in specific fields and current developments at the national, regional and international levels to develop alternative forms of intellectual property rights, for instance with regard to traditional knowledge and plant varieties.
Objectives
This course seeks to equip students with a broad understanding of the international intellectual property rights system, the main forms of intellectual property rights and the relevant international institutional framework. Its specificity is to provide students with a broad understanding of intellectual property in the context of sustainable development, emphasising all three dimensions of sustainable development: environmental, economic and social. In other words, it seeks to equip students with the necessary analytical tools to understand intellectual property in its broader environment, with particular emphasis on the situation of developing countries. |
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International Environmental Law
This course is offered to SOAS students on any of the LLM or MA in Law programmes.
Description
This course focuses on international legal and institutional arrangements concerning the management of the environment. It examines both theoretical and practical dimensions of these arrangements. The course focuses primarily on international/global treaties and institutions. However, selected regional regimes are considered where relevant and reference is made to domestic arrangements while considering the implementation, effectiveness and impacts of international legal regimes.
The course generally explores the most salient aspects of the expanding area of international environmental law. It examines in particular some of the ‘global’ environmental issues that have risen to the top of the international agenda following the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Conference) and the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development.
The course focuses on several key aspects of international environmental law. In particular, it considers issues related to the protection of the environment (pollution), the conservation of the environment (species and habitats) and the use/exploitation of environmental resources (species, genetic resources, agriculture, fisheries).
The course examines environmental issues in their broader context. In particular, it focuses on the links between environmental management and economic development, with particular reference to the notion of sustainable development. Other concerns, such as the link between the environment and human rights and between environment and trade are also be examined.
International environmental law is today intrinsically related to the concept of sustainable development. In keeping with the strong development component of much recent international environmental law, the course often makes reference to the North-South dimension of the issues examined. These includes both theoretical aspects, such as the question of preferential treatment (equity) in international environmental law and more practical aspects such as the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Change Convention.
The course also puts special emphasis on measures taken to foster the implementation of the numerous international treaties adopted at the international level. It examines international legal and institutional arrangements in this regard. This includes, in particular, an analysis of the role of environmental financial mechanisms (and, more generally, multilateral development banks) in the realisation of the goals of international environmental instruments. Further, the relationship between environmental protection and trade is examined both from the point of view of environmental instruments (e.g., emissions trading in the climate change regime) and from the point of view of the international trade regime, especially as embodied in the World Trade Organization.
While the course generally focuses on the international legal framework, a comprehensive account of the international legal regime must include references to domestic arrangements. Indeed, international environmental law instruments are often general in nature and the lack of strong enforcement procedures implies that the realisation of international environmental norms is often dependent on national implementation. This is especially the case in a number of developing countries. The course examines the role of diverse local and international actors in this process, including national courts.
The course also considers international institutional arrangements regarding the management of the environment. It considers both institutions dealing primarily with the environment and the role of other institutions. The role of governments, the civil society, the private sector and other actors in negotiating and implementing international environmental law is also examined.
Objectives
The course seeks to introduce the general international legal and institutional framework relating to the management of the environment. It is designed to equip students with analytical tools with which they may understand the international legal framework of environmental law in its broader context, including political, economic, social and ecological dimensions.
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Law Environment and Development
This course is offered to SOAS students on any of the LLM or MA in Law programmes.
Description
This course examines environmental law in its development context. It critically examines legal strategies employed in different jurisdictions for the pursuit of sustainable development. It seeks to analyse some of the main trends in the development of environmental law in the context of the South over the past couple of decades. This includes an examination of national level regulation, the role of the judiciary as well as the role of international law and institutions in the development and implementation of national environmental laws and principles.
This course includes a general part which examines some of the main trends in the development of environmental law in the South and some of the main principles and norms informing it. This is followed by the examination of a number of different themes that are of specific relevance in the South. Examples of topics which may be covered include: biodiversity, biosafety, water, air pollution and climate change, forests, dams, the role and impact of international institutions and multinational enterprises.
For 2006-2007, proposed areas of focus include: Biodiversity, Forests, Water, Dams, Agro-biotechnology/biosafety and Industrial development.
Objectives
The course seeks to provide students with an overall understanding of environmental regulation in its broader context. It provides an introduction to the basic structure of environmental law, the links between environmental regulation and development and the broader political, social and economic dimensions that inform environmental regulation. The course will seek to provide both general and specific analysis of environmental law. This will be achieved through a combination of general analysis and case studies. |
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Law and Natural Resources
This course is offered to SOAS students on any of the LLM or MA in Law programmes.
Description
This course examines international, regional and national legal and institutional arrangements concerning the conservation and use of natural resources. It introduces legal principles relevant to the conservation and use of natural resources in international and national law. This course focuses on the international law aspects of natural resource use and conservation, the North-South dimension and on individual developing country case studies.
Natural resource regulation is analysed within the broad conceptual framework of the notion of sustainable development. As a result, this course examines simultaneously economic development aspects of natural resource regulation, social development aspects and environmental aspects. This course specifically seeks to make the links between the exploitation of natural resources for macro-economic development and subsistence and other uses of natural resources for food security and health needs as well as the links between use for economic development and conservation, for instance, in the context of broader policy challenges such as climate change.
This course starts with a background to natural resource regulation, including basic principles of international law relevant to natural resources, such as sovereignty and related concepts for natural resource appropriation, differential treatment/equity, sustainable development and human rights. It also examines the role of some of the main actors in natural resource use and conservation such as the World Bank and transnational companies. The course then moves on to examine a number of more specific issues within the context of selected natural resources. Natural resources considered may include water, genetic resources, forests, marine living and mineral resources of the seabed, minerals and energy.
Objectives
This course seeks to equip students with a broad understanding of the law related to natural resources. It specifically seeks to provide students with knowledge of basic concepts and principles underlying the conservation and use of natural resources at the international and national levels. It examines in particular the regulation of natural resources within the overall framework of sustainable development. It thus seeks to equip students with the ability to understand and analyse issues concerning natural resource conservation and use from a broad perspective encompassing their economic, social and environmental dimensions. |
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