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The global energy system is complex and undergoing constant change, complicating the transition to a lower carbon future.  Vermont Law School's Institute for Energy and the Environment engages with our partners such as our U.S. Asia Partnership for Environmental Law, our international fellows in Europe and Latin America, and international faculty and students in locations such as Havana, Cuba in order to broaden the reach of our educational program and to learn from other region's experiences in the low carbon transition.  The Institute for Energy and the Environment welcomes students and scholars from across the globe and embraces the opportunity to build new international collaborations that help expedite our transition to a clean energy future. 

See the announcement and call for papers for the Just Transition to a Low Carbon Future 2020 Conference cosponsored by the IEE.

Professor Anna Marhold's Global Energy Law and Policy Class
Professor Anna Marhold's 2019 Global Energy Law and Policy Class

 

 

Our summer session course, Global Energy Law and Policy, alternates between a focus on European Energy and Climate Law and Latin American Energy and Climate Law.  In the summer of 2019 Dr. Anna Marhold taught the course from an EU perspective.  Dr. Marhold is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Law and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University where her specialization is international economic law, with a particular focus on international trade law at the intersection of energy and environmental regulation.  

In addition, our curriculum offers multiple opportunities to explore environmental issues across Asia, including leading research opportunities through our U.S. Asia Partnership for Environmental Law.

IEE International Fellows Banner
2020 Visiting Professor Arturo Brandt and IEE Director Kevin Jones on a rooftop in beautiful Santiago, Chile with the Andes mountain range in the background.

 

 

During the summer of 2020, Arturo Brandt will again teach Global Energy Law and Policy, focusing on Latin American Energy and Climate Law and Policy.  Arturo, who has an LLM in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School, is a Senior Broker and Representative for Latin America with the UK firm TFS Green and Senior Counsel with the Santiago firm, Grupo Vial-Serrano Abogados, as well as, a Senior Fellow with the IEE. 

VLS and University of Havana School of Law Students
VLS Students and University of Havana School of Law Students explore common ground.

 

 

The Environmental Law Center at VLS offers multiple field study courses and one of the many popular choices is Global Sustainability Field Study, which currently focuses on farm and energy sustainability in Cuba.  Over Thanksgiving break in 2019, 28 students, along with IEE faculty, visited Havana and the Cuban countryside to observe their policies up close. The students visited renewable energy facilities, leading sustainable farms, and visited the Technological University of Havana (CUJAE) and the University of Havana School of Law.  Students also met leaders from the NGO CubaSolar and the agency CubaEnergia and visited cultural and historic sites.  We are excited that during the Summer of 2020, Professor Natacha Mesa Tejada, Professor of Commercial Law with the Faculty of Law at the University of Havana, will join us for two weeks as our summer energy scholar.

Australian Lawyer Elizabeth McDonald visits the IEE.
Australian Lawyer, Elizabeth McDonald (second from right), visits the IEE.

 

 

The IEE was pleased to have Elizabeth McDonald visit us for three weeks in 2019.  Elizabeth is an attorney with the Australian firm SWS Lawyers in Newcastle and also teaches with the University of Newcastle School of Law.  Elizabeth was visiting with the support of an Endeavour Executive Leadership Award and chose VLS because of our unique work on community solar in our Energy Clinic.  We often have scholars from around the world visit the IEE and last year we were fortunate to have Professor Xin Qiu from Jinan University School of Law in China visit the IEE for six months.  Other recent visiting energy law scholars have been Professor Eva Barret from Ireland, Professor Birgitte Egelund Olsen, Aarhus University in Denmark, and Anna Butenko from Tilburg University in the Netherlands.