All courses

Between Conservation and Restoration: Recalibrating EU Environmental Law

An Cliquet This presentation begins with an overview of the EU’s nature protection framework, focusing on the Birds and Habitats Directives and their role in conserving and restoring biodiversity. It then examines the Nature Restoration Regulation in detail, highlighting its binding targets, broader scope, and emphasis on ecosystem restoration, while also addressing the challenges of effective implementation by Member States.

e-Presentation | March 2026 | Learning time: 45 minutes

e-Presentation by An Cliquet, Professor of Environmental Law, Faculty of Law and Criminology, Ghent University.

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Verein Klimaseniorinnen: Climate Change and State Obligations (Art. 6 and 8 ECHR)

Marc Willers

This presentation introduces the European Court of Human Rights' judgment in the KlimaSeniorinnen case, outlining the applicant's claims and the Court’s findings on Switzerland’s compliance with the ECHR. It reviews the Court’s legal reasoning and enforcement aspects, concluding with an overview of the judgment’s implications for climate protection within human rights law and state accountability.

e-Presentation | September 2025 | Learning time: 29 minutes

e-Presentation by Marc Willers, Attorney, Garden Court Chambers, London.

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The Incorporation of Substantive Fundamental Rights in the CJEU Environmental Litigation

Alessandra Donati

This presentation examines the role of substantive fundamental rights in the CJEU’s environmental litigation, structured around six guiding questions. The analysis focus on which Charter rights could be mobilized, the current state of their use in CJEU case law and the reasons behind this status quo, and whether the Ilva judgement signals an evolution. It concludes by presenting an argument that the status quo needs to be improved and suggests a possible way forward drawing conclusions from the Ilva case.

e-Presentation | September 2025 | Learning time: 30 minutes

e-Presentation by Alessandra Donati, Legal Secretary, Court of Justice of the EU, Luxembourg.

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Comparative Approaches to Pollution Cases: ECtHR vs CJEU

Johan Callewaert

The presentation begins with an introduction to the cases of Ilva and Cordella and their relation to each other. It then goes on to compare the two cases regarding the differences on the legal basis, scope, factual findings, operative parts, and implementation of the judgements. The comparison highlights how the approach of the two European courts differs from each other on the same environmental issue. The presentation concludes with an assessment on whether the judgements are conflicting, duplication or complementary of each other.

e-Presentation | September 2025 | Learning time: 31 minutes

e-Presentation by Johann Callewaert, Professor, Universities of Louvain and Speyer.

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EU Law Measures to Accelerate Renewable Energy Use while Safeguarding Nature Conservation

Christoph Sobotta

This presentation begins with an overview of the EU’s procedural and substantive legal measures aimed at accelerating the deployment of renewable energy. It then examines the REPowerEU Regulations in greater detail, with a particular focus on ensuring that nature conservation obligations are safeguarded within this framework.

e-Presentation | November 2024 | Learning time: 39 minutes

e-Presentation by Christoph Sobotta, Legal Secretary, Chambers of Advocate General Juliane Kokott, Court of Justice of the European Union, Luxembourg.

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Complexity and Conflict of Norms: How to Handle Compliance with EU Environmental Law

Iris Kieft

This e-presentation addresses the complexity and conflict of norms in ensuring compliance with EU environmental law. It outlines the extensive body of EU environmental law, comprising over 500 directives, regulations and decisions, and how the different approaches of different pieces of legislation create numerous opportunities for conflicting standards. The presentation also discusses compliance at Member State level, noting the prevalence of infringement cases and their causes. It concludes by highlighting the need for regulatory harmonisation to resolve these conflicts and improve compliance.

e-Presentation | March 2024 | Learning time: 31 minutes

e-Presentation by Iris Kieft, Associate Partner at NautaDutilh International Law Firm, Rotterdam.

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Proving Environmental Law: Courts and Environmental Cases

This e-presentation explores the complexities of proving environmental law in court cases. It highlights different legal aspects regarding the challenges of understanding and applying scientifically complex environmental concepts such as toxicity and pollution, which often depend on the interaction between substances and ecosystems, as well as stresses the diverse nature of evidence in environmental law, the critical role of access to information, and the importance of using open and official sources of environmental data to support environmental litigation.

e-Presentation | March 2024 | Learning time: 48 minutes

e-Presentation by Marc Clément, Presiding Judge of the Administrative Court of Lyon and Vice-Chair of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee.

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Insights on Guidance and Coordination of the Work of the Member States’ Environmental Authorities in Countering Environmental Crime

The e-presentation gives an introduction to the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) and provides insights about its enforcement work by showcasing the different tools which are at its disposal through the Member States’ environmental authorities. The harmonisation of the European dataset on illegal waste shipments is addressed and further explained with recent cases.

e-Presentation | November 2023 | Learning time: 33 minutes

e-Presentation by Katie Olley, International Waste Shipments Specialist, Producer Compliance and Waste Shipment Unit, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, North Lanarkshire; European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) Representative, Brussels.

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Supporting Financial Institutions in Addressing and Reporting Suspicious Transactions Relating to the Illegal Wildlife Trade: Financial Flows Toolkits

The e-presentation details the research THEMIS has conducted on the illegal wildlife trade, deforestation and land conversion linked to financial crime and how the financial service industry facilitates criminal activities. The toolkits provided by THEMIS to support financial institutions in addressing and reporting suspicious transaction are introduced, which identify businesses, activities and transactions associated with these crimes and provide advice on how to avoid becoming complicit.

e-Presentation | November 2023 | Learning time: 46 minutes

e-Presentation by Carel van Randwyck, Head of Impact & Partnerships, THEMIS, London.

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Tackling Environmental Crime through Legal Interventions: a Closer Look at the Fisheries Sector

The e-presentation details criminal offences committed in connection with illegal fishing and how the European Union and NGOs are tackling it. Insights into examples of fisheries crime and the EU legal framework are presented and multiple enforcement challenges and their consequences are addressed.

e-Presentation | November 2023 | Learning time: 46 minutes

e-Presentation by Nils Courcy, Judge, Dean, Criminal Court, Segovia; Associate Professor, University of Alcalá.

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Insights into Dealing with Environmental Crime Cases in Court

The e-presentation gives insights into how environmental crime cases are dealt with and uses case studies to illustrate these. The concept of environmental rule of law is introduced and consequences which arise in cases of failure are presented. Cooperation between environmental enforcement networks is showcased and issues related to jurisdiction are addressed.

e-Presentation | November 2023 | Learning time: 49 minutes

e-Presentation by Faustino Gudin Rodríguez-Magariños, Judge, Dean, Criminal Court, Segovia; Associate Professor, University of Alcalá.

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European Green Deal: Assessment by the EEB

The presentation provides a comprehensive assessment of the Green Deal by explaining its background, current state, and challenges ahead. The separation in green, yellow and red lights gives a clear view of progress and of what may be expected as next steps.

e-Presentation | March 2023 | Learning time: 57 minutes

e-Presentation by Faustine Bas-Defossez, Director for Nature, Health and Environment, European Environmental Bureau, Brussels

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Now What? The Aftermath of the Urgenda Case

The presentation provides an overview of the Urgenda case and its impact, especially on climate litigation cases that followed. It explains the background of the case and its link to human rights, presents other recent climate cases before national courts in the EU, highlights the exceptionality of climate litigation in comparison to environmental cases, and shows future trends

e-Presentation | March 2023 | Learning time: 1hour 10 minutes

e-Presentation by Christina Eckes, Professor of European Law, University of Amsterdam.

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Hydrogen: Opportunities and Pitfalls for a Sustainable Energy Transition

The presentation provides an overview of hydrogen as a fuel source by explaining the types and roles of hydrogen in the future energy mix, assessing the EU’s Hydrogen Strategy and presenting the potential of technologies using hydrogen in the Energy Community.

e-Presentation | March 2023 | Learning time: 49 minutes

e-Presentation by Peter Vajda, Senior Environmental Expert, Energy Community, Vienna.

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