Israel:
Solar Power, Wastewater Treatment, and Agriculture

Gabriel Eckstein and Nancy Welsh

The 2023 Israel field study course will combine classroom and field experience in Israel to explore water and other environmental challenges and related dispute resolution issues in the region. The course will be structured around legal questions and concerns raised by a client-entrepreneur developing a product designed to assist individuals and small communities in Israel, and possibly Texas, conserve and recycle scarce water.  Responding to the entrepreneur’s questions will involve: comparative legal research in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Texas; interviewing Israeli and Palestinian officials, leaders and judges; and visiting sites in Israel and the Palestinian Territories relevant to water scarcity, environmental issues, and dispute resolution.

   ► Course Details & Application

    

Mexico:
Energy, Regulation of Natural Resources and Dispute Resolution

Guillermo Garcia

      

In contrast to the United States, Mexico owns all water and hydrocarbon resources and contracts private parties to exploit them. This creates a substantially different regulatory environment from that governing energy production in the U.S. This Global Lawyering Course will provide students the opportunity to see this environment directly through meetings with government officials from the energy regulatory agencies, judges that have dealt with energy-related disputes with communities and legal practitioners working in the energy sector, and community leaders.

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Intro to Israel:
Water, Energy, and Dispute Resolution

Gabriel Eckstein and Nancy Welsh

The Spring 2018 Israel field study focused on regional disputes related to water and energy resource management. Through on-site visits to various Israeli and Palestinian ministries, non-government organizations, and water and energy-related facilities, students explored water and energy procurement, development, and distribution in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, as well as associated environmental concerns. They also examined the challenges that resources scarcity, political instability, differing cultural norms, and other factors play in natural resources management and considered applicable domestic and international laws and dispute resolutions mechanisms.

“This field study will be a deep dive into the regulatory, political, and environmental issues at play,” Nancy Welsh, Aggie Dispute Resolution Program Director, said. “The current disputes over seawater desalination and its attending environmental impact are very timely, and will give our students insight into the nuances of dispute resolution in a different part of the world that cannot be replicated in the classroom.”

The combined classroom and field experience in Israel explored the history, culture, and legal issues related to water, energy, and associated dispute resolution challenges and examined basics of international and comparative law, cross-cultural communication, and being a global professional.

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Scotland:
Natural Resource Management and Dispute Resolution
Randy Gordon and Guillermo Garcia

The Spring 2018 Scotland field study introduced students to the use of international commercial arbitration.

“Arbitration has long played an important role in dispute resolution in Scotland and, as a result, Scotland has developed its own body of arbitration law,” said Executive Professor of Law Randy Gordon, who will lead the course. “As part of our field study in Aberdeen, we will examine the particulars of the Scottish arbitration scheme and how it fits within and diverges from the international commercial arbitration system.”

Situated as it is along the North Sea, Aberdeen, and its ancient University, naturally evolved into an energy center. Our program ​took advantage of the broad expertise--in terms of both scholarship and business--growing out of Aberdeen's extensive connections to the North Sea oil and gas fields. More broadly, ​the students considered EU and International Law as they apply to energy, environmental, and climate change policy issues. ​The course gave particular attention to dispute resolution in Scotland, the UK, and the EU, including arbitration. ​The students made use of the Scottish location to learn about the history and evolution of Scots Law and the present mix of legal institutions.