Legal Challenges in International Investments, Indigenous Peoples and Environment Protection Erasmus Project

Project Title

Legal Challenges in International Investments, Indigenous Peoples and Environment Protection

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; Home and justice affairs (human rights & rule of law); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

3IPEP is a higher education training project in the field of law, developed on the belief that master programmes in law should conciliate transfer of excellent legal expertise (knowledge and competences) in international business law, with the awakening of students’ awareness of major ethical challenges faced by public regulators and multinational companies: the protection of environment and the respect of human rights, including the rights of vulnerable people such as indigenous peoples. The whole project is driven by the growing social concern for international business to respect the fundamental rights of the people, with a specific focus put on the Arctic, a region under major threats due to global warming.

In this line, the project pursued three main objectives.
Firstly, it aimed at creating tools supporting innovative teaching of international business law, based on the assumption that business law shall be (re)conciliated with human rights in general, and indigenous peoples’ rights in particular. To reach this objective, four innovative courses with related teaching materials were developed within the project: 1) Global Environmental Litigation; 2) Multilevel Governance of Natural Resources in the Arctic; 3) Arctic Indigenous Peoples Law; 4) Business and Natural Resources Rights.

Secondly, the project ambitioned to provide legal assistance, using the students’ training program, to indigenous peoples and non-governmental organizations dedicated to the protection of human rights and of the environment. With this view, a law clinic was created and completed its first tasks in 2020 on behalf of the NGO Minority Rights Group. Further collaborations with NGOs are to be developed.

Thirdly, the project was expected to contribute to the effort of raising general awareness about the situation of indigenous peoples and more generally about ethical issues. To this aim, a website has been created. Several scientific contributions have been published and more are to be published soon. Events have been and will be organised. Above all, students have been trained during two intensive teaching programmes organised in the context of the project, and more should be educated on these topics in the future.
Conducted by a consortium of three partners (University of Versailles Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines/Paris Saclay, France; University of Lapland, Finland; Riga Graduate School of Law, Latvia), which are all actively involved in international law, environment and climate change issues, human rights and Arctic Studies and had prior common experiences, the project has been a unique opportunity for the partners to tighten their bonds and deepen teaching and scientific cooperation. Further collaboration between UVSQ and ULapland, in relation to the project’s topics, has been decided. It should consist of a joint master programme, of which the courses and the clinic will be the cornerstones. The project has also been the occasion to establish contacts with new partners. Whereas RGSL decided not to be involved in the master programme, University of New Caledonia has shown great interest. Privileged contacts have also been established with the University of Iceland for further collaboration.

The project’s expected impact to enhance European academic expertise on indigenous law issues has been fulfilled.
The longer-term impact consisting of fostering international law students’ employability by delivering a training consistent with contemporary concerns of MNC, international organizations and NGO, and of contributing to the entry to the labor market of highly skilled lawyers mastering international law fundamentals in connection with business ethics, shall be achieved through the master programme. The programme should also be a good opportunity to involve multinational companies further.
The longer-term impact of supporting stakeholders (indigenous people, NGO) should operate through the work of the clinic.
Hopefully, these three impacts, combined, will contribute to raise awareness of the general public on the situation of vulnerable peoples, the risks of climate change, the need for a more ethical international business design and the role public and private regulation should play for achieving this objective.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 163593 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITE DE VERSAILLES SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES. & Country: FR

Project Partners

• LAPIN YLIOPISTO
• RIGAS JURIDISKA AUGSTSKOLA