2014 Global Environment LLM students obtain international placements

Following the conclusion of the fourth edition of the LLM in Global Environment and Climate Change Law, several of our students have already secured internships in inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations specialising in environmental law.

Supanut Chotevitayatarakorn has started an internship at the the Environmental Law Centre of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Bonn, Germany. He is involved in a legal project on indigenous and community conserved areas and climate change, as well as in the proposal of a protocol on international wildlife crime to the UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime.

Naveed Nanjee is currently working at the Secretariat of the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (the Espoo Convention) at the UN Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva, Switzerland. He is involved in the review of compliance by State parties with their obligations under the Espoo Convention and its Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment. Prior to this placement, Naveed served as a research intern at the Scottish Parliament, for the Rural Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment Committee. There he assisted in drafting policy briefs on agriculture, fisheries, rural development, climate change, the environment and other matters falling within the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment.

Michaela Schwedeler has started an internship at the think tank Climate Focus (Berlin, Germany) and is primarily working on land use in Latin America. Prior to this placement, Michaela had also conducted an internship at the National Trust for Scotland as a prize for winning this year's Colin Donald Environmental Law Award. There, she worked in the Legal Department on the interactions between the implementation of the planning system in Scotland and private rights to protect the environment. She also conducted research on the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme and its implications for the Trust.

Giulia Tarsitano has started an internship at the European Policy Office of Four Paws (an international animal welfare NGO) in Brussels, Belgium. Among other things, Giulia is supporting the organization of the 2014 International Captive Wildlife Conference.

Laurie Van Der Burg secured an internship at the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn, Germany. As part of the Momentum for Change Team, she is contributing to international efforts to raise the ambitions in the negotiations towards a new global climate agreement scheduled for adoption in late 2015. 

Supanut Chotevitayatarakorn, Michaela Schwedeler, Laurie Van Der Burg and Romina Chavez have also been acting as research assistants for the BENELEX project run by Dr Elisa Morgera at the University of Edinburgh Law School. They were involved in researching references to the legal concept of benefit-sharing in various international legal and policy documents in the areas of environmental protection and human rights and in producing mind maps to provide a visually appealing and accessible representation of the results of that research.