In 2018, Academy of Environmental Studies said, “Do your part! Pro Bono Omnibus! ”is an environmental initiative that brings together young people under the academic umbrella .
Zerrin Savaşan is the founder & executive of this environmental initiative. He is a 2001 graduate of Ankara University Faculty of Law. He completed his internship in Ankara Bar Association in 2001-2002 period and in 2002 he got the right to get the Attorney License. In 2004, the Department of European Studies at METU with thesis M.Sc. He started his program as a research assistant at the same department and his thesis advisor was Prof.Dr. Necati Polat successfully completed his thesis in the spring of 2006 with his master thesis titled EU The EU Constitutional Treaty and Human Rights inde. Afterwards, she continued her PhD in the Department of International Relations at METU and passed her Ph.D. As a PhD candidate, thesis advisor in the field of International Environmental Law and International Environmental Policy, Assoc. Dr. Şule Güneş received her PhD degree on May 10, 2013, completing her doctoral dissertation entitled liance Compliance Mechanisms (CMAs): A Comparative Analysis of CMs Kyoto (Kyoto and Montreal Protocols).
So, she completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in the fields of Turkish law (due to her graduation from Ankara University Faculty of Law), EU law (because of her master’s degree in the field of European Studies at METU), and international law and international relations (due to her doctorate in METU’s international relations department). as a field of expertise and focus on environmental law.
In this context, she went to universities working on environmental law for doctorate and post-doctoral research and participated in the related studies of these universities and carried out their studies.
These universities, the duration of the study and the dimensions of the studies are as follows:
- Vrije University (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Institute for Environmental Studies (Instite for Environmental Studies) between 1 February 2010-31 July 2010 (6 months), Prof.Dr. For his doctoral dissertation with Frank Biermann,
- From October 2010 to March 2011 (6 months), Prof.Dr. at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law at the University of Heidelberg (Heidelberg, Germany). For his doctoral dissertation with Rudiger Wolfrum,
- Between November 2015 and July 2016 (8 months), Prof.Dr. at the Institute for Transnational Legal Research (METRO), Faculty of Law, Maastricht University (Maastricht, Netherlands). For post-doctoral research with Michael G. Fauer entitled “Enhancing Compliance Through Cooperation Opportunities Between Informal Environmental Compliance Networks and Multilateral Environmental Agreements
In addition to the above-mentioned academic institutions, ‘2012 Summer Session on Environmental Law’, which directly contributes to the conduct, development and successful completion of the doctoral dissertation, includes courses directly related to environmental law (2012 Summer Session on Environmental Law). Protection, Environmental Compliance and Enforcement).
In addition, he had the opportunity to receive feedback from other academicians who applied to present his studies, who participated in international conferences, which were detailed below, presented their papers and exchanged views with other academicians working on the subject.
Assoc. Prof. Zerrin Savaşan is currently working in the Department of International Relations, Department of International Relations at Selçuk University. as an international law, international environmental law, Turkish law (constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law). Especially in the recent period, it has also started to focus on the Turkish environmental law as well as international environmental law. In this respect, he is one of the editors of the publication “Environmental Politics in Turkey: Addressing the Concerns and Challenges,.
So far, environmental law for his work in the field, especially in recent years as a result of his work on Turkish environmental law, environmental law in Turkey and the Turkish environment and the academic study of law had recognized that the issue in the legal education remain both in theory and in practice insufficient.
As Westerlund said, “if law is not sustainable, it preserves unsustainable behavior (“ unless law is made sustaianble, it protects unsustainable conducts ”). [1] For the formation of sustainable environmental law and policies, it is essential that the experts equipped in this field are experts.
Therefore, these initiatives with environmental law training under the present relevant / identifying potential problems and the search for solutions relating to them, on this occasion in a special environmental law, legal education in Turkey aimed at the new perspectives gained.
Having removed the environmental law chair at the law faculties in Turkey, is taking place as an elective course in environmental law course, under the basic legal field in an associate professor application in mind is not listed as a scientific field of environmental law field; Increasing the number of academicians and lawyers working on environmental law is considered as one of the sub-objectives of this initiative.
[1] Westerlund, Steffan. Theory for sustainable development; towards or against? Sustainable development in international and national law. Groningen: Europa Law Publishing, 2008, p. 49-66.
