Call for Applications: for Helsinki Summer Seminar on International Law 2026, 24–27 August 2026
The application period closes on 19 August 2026.
Degree students of the University of Helsinki Faculty of Law can attend the seminar free of charge and include it as an elective in their study programme. To obtain 5 credits, a minimum of 80% in-person class attendance and the submission of an essay in Moodle are required. For further information and registration, please see Sisu.
The 2026 Helsinki Summer Seminar, ‘Despair, Action, Hope, confronts the crisis in international environmental law, which risks being outpaced by the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Global commitments to address the key drivers of the crisis remain weak and uneven. Parties’ climate action falls dangerously short of the Paris Agreement’s 1.5℃ goal, global biodiversity governance remains weak and fragmented, and efforts to secure an international treaty to end plastic pollution have so far failed. Profound gaps hence persist between scientific urgency and the international legal response to the triple planetary crisis. This year’s seminar explores how despair over failing legal structures can coexist with a renewed sense of agency and hope. Across four days (Aug 24-27), examine responsibilities, environmental democracy, and the role of courts, while reflecting on the political and ethical stakes of the transition ahead. Even amid systemic insufficiency, action remains available to us in legal, institutional, and collective forms. The seminar invites attendees to find direction, solidarity, and hope through informed engagement and purposeful practice. participants will emerging actors, shifting
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