Sustainable Mindset Chain of Change.
Exploring legal and regulatory perspectives in the shift toward sustainable development
In the debate surrounding sustainability, we believe in the importance of utilizing academic perspectives. With a sharp focus on the normative foundations of sustainability, we seek to better understand its underlying legal architecture, as well as the policies and regulatory frameworks it shapes.
At IE Law School, we offer a future-forward, tech-focused, entrepreneurial perspective, allowing students to benefit from comparative and multidisciplinary approaches to the study of law. Thanks to our global outlook, we provide them with the legal and regulatory knowledge needed to fuel the transition toward sustainable development.
By exploring debates on human rights, the rule of law and international legal structures, students have the opportunity to consider how these topics relate to sustainable development efforts. Using these insights and conclusions, students are empowered to contribute to the development of different sustainability narratives.
We integrate sustainable development into our program portfolio and into the research carried out by the members of the IE Law School community. Backed by our expertise in law, we also leverage relationships with a wide range of industry-leading partners to promote a culture of sustainability across public and private organizations.
Fostering sustainability at every level
INITIATIVES
IE Law School strives to build a solid foundation of knowledge, training, innovation and reflection to drive progress in law that can have an impact on sustainability. For this reason, several disruptive initiatives have been designed to help students, educators, professionals and the global legal community better understand how law has become central to sustainable development.
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Legal ClinicLegal Clinic
Our Legal Clinic fosters a sense of social responsibility in the legal profession and highlights the value it provides to the community. It gives students the opportunity to make their mark through research initiatives or by offering legal advice. Here, we highlight projects related to sustainability.
Fundación Fernando Pombo. This project challenged students to find innovative legal ways to provide sustainable financing to social entities. Students had the chance to research and draft a report on sustainable finance, also looking at how to implement it in Spain.
Refugee work. This social entrepreneurship project was aimed at connecting refugees with companies, supporting them as they build new lives in their host countries.
Legal Response Initiative. Thanks to our agreement with the Legal Response Initiative, our students have the opportunity to provide free legal support in developing countries, countries experiencing high climate change vulnerability, as well as to civil society organizations with observer status. This initiative works with an international network of lawyers to provide hands-on assistance during meetings, draft legal opinions and support lawyers and negotiators from developing countries.
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Global Legaltech Venture DaysGlobal Legaltech Venture Days
In partnership with IE Law School’s Global League, we launched a global Legaltech competition. By creating a platform for startups and entrepreneurial projects that are using technology to improve legal operations, the competition is actively promoting the rule of law and equal access to justice for all.
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LawAhead HubLawAhead Hub
The LawAhead Hub was created to explore transformation within the legal sector in order to identify and find solutions to the sector’s most pressing issues. LawAhead provides content and facilitates discussions that promote sustainability, while encouraging partners and members to discover solutions in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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Legaltech Innovation FarmLegaltech Innovation Farm
The IE Legaltech Innovation Farm is an open, tech-neutral ecosystem created to cultivate early-stage technological innovation and experimentation. Powered by our network of partners, experts and the right tech platforms, we work with senior corporate leaders to transform their business ideas into prototype apps, algorithms, bots, software and business models.
Physics, renewables, and regulations: Are we getting it wrong?
Despite our best efforts to mitigate climate change, we are still incurring in costly mistakes. There are no shortcuts in this fight to save our ...
26 / 03 / 2019
Are we going nowhere fast?
The complexity of the regulatory panorama won’t allow us to make concrete predictions about the future of Smart Mobility. Evaluating the ...
27 / 05 / 2019
The Women on Boards Directive: Is Europe closer to breaking the glass ceiling?
Instituting gender quotas is a controversial approach to achieving gender equality. The question is: does it take us a step closer to breaking the ...
13 / 12 / 2019
A timely initiative for urgent removal of sensitive content from the Internet
The creation of a priority channel for reporting the sharing of sensitive content and requesting its withdrawal is a courageous, responsible and ...
18 / 11 / 2019
Algorithmic Justice, Education, and the Lawyer of the Future
As we witness the unstoppable advance of machine learning and its application in more and more areas of our lives, I am more convinced each day that ...
30 / 10 / 2018
For a more humanistic advocacy
What role does law play in our society? What capacity does a lawyer have to change people’s lives? What can humanism contribute in relation to ...
11 / 04 / 2019
ACADEMIC CURRICULA
STUDENT & ALUMNI IMPACT PROJECTS
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Utamu, contributing to universal education
Alum Valentina Soldera created and launched Utamu, an ethical fashion brand that celebrates craftsmanship and supports children’s education. The brand partnered with Masicorp, a results-driven organization tackling the low level of literacy in Masiphumelele, a small community in Cape Town devastated by the legacy of apartheid. For every jacket or tunic sold, Utamu sponsors three months of English and math classes for a child at Ukhanyo Primary School.
Utamu -
The Champ Camp, building champion people
Waleed Abu Nada, a Dual Degree in Business Administration and Laws student from Jordan, created the Champ Camp: a weightlifting project to help refugees in his hometown. The initiative aims to provide a place where young refugees can feel safe, find purpose, and gain courage, regardless of race, religion, gender or background. In this way, the program gives disadvantaged youth a way to channel their energy into something positive.
The Champ Camp -
Thirst Project x Madrid: Youth Water Activism Organization
Bachelor of Laws student Teresa Oliveira De Sousa is part of a global group of dedicated students on a mission to end the global water crisis. The program has already carried out over 3,000 projects across 13 countries, saving hundreds of thousands of lives by providing access to safe, clean drinking water.
Thirst Project x Madrid
ACADEMIA & RESEARCH: Our faculty´s impact
IE Law School’s faculty is committed to promoting sustainable development across the globe, with a particular focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16—to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.
- Marina Aksenova. Renowned for her studies on the interaction between art, human rights and international justice.
- Bart Wauters. Promotes the study of human rights through our Legal Clinic.
- Antonios Kouroutakis. Explores ways to strengthen democracy through “demossibility,” a new concept he coined himself.
- Marie-José Garot. Leader in research of the principle of judicial independence, and how it is promoted by European institutions, specifically the European Court of Justice.
- Marco de Benito. Key researcher on dispute resolution mechanisms as an alternative to ordinary justice.
- Victor Torre de Silva. Focuses his research on how to strengthen the efficiency of public administration for the benefit of all.
- Francisco Marcos, Charlotte Leskinen and Fernando Pastor. Recognized experts in European Competition law—a critical concept for building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
- Giulio Allevato. Top thinker on the global architecture of taxation and regulation in the financial sector.
- Sonsoles Arias. Explores new ways to promote global governance through fundamental principles of constitutional law.
IE Law School also boasts faculty members who devote their research to other SDGs.
- Johanna Jacobsson. Researches the liberalization of trade in services under the rules of the European Union and the World Trade Organization.
- Michail Risvas. Specializes in the principle of non-discrimination in international economic law in order to promote a global partnership for sustainable development.
- Antonio Aloisi. Works to protect labor rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all.
- Sara Sanchez. Promotes corporate law as a way to foster economic growth.
- Francisco Elizalde and Argyri Panezi. Leading researchers on law, technology, and the relationship between the two.
CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS
SPOTLIGHT
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JAVIER DE CENDRA
Dean Javier de Cendra is an expert on how climate change measures can be made more effective and integrated into national policies.
With a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Energy and Environmental Law from the University of Leuven (Belgium), and a PhD in International and European Climate Change Law from Maastricht University (the Netherlands), Javier’s academic expertise in environmental law is vast. His speciality, though, is climate change—an extremely dynamic area of environmental law with lots of room for innovation.
He is a fellow of the Sustainability College Bruges and has participated in research for and offered advice to the European Commission (DG Climate Action) on issues related to climate change adaptation policy. In that context, he helped prepare a guideline draft on adaptation to climate change, as part of a team led by Professor Kurt Deketelaere, General Secretary of the League of European Research Universities.
Javier is Vice-Chair of the Health and Safety Committee at the International Bar Association, a member of the international advisory board at CEID, and a member of the Editorial Board for the Carbon Climate Law Review, a leading academic journal in the field of climate change. Finally, Javier also serves as a board member for IE’s Observatory on Sustainable Compliance Cultures.