By the end of this semester, students should have a basic 
understanding of institutional drivers of environmental 
practices and outcomes at multiple levels of socio-political 
organization, from the village level to the international 
level. They should be familiar with different types of 
governance instruments, including regulatory and market-based, 
and the conditions under which they emerged and gained 
prominence. They should also have an understanding of the 
extent to which different types and levels of institutions 
shape the behavior of individuals, groups and corporations (and 
related outcomes) in different contexts. While these drivers 
are relevant to any society and most locations, the course 
places emphasis on developing countries and in equipping 
students with an interpretive lens to enable them to understand 
many of the deficiencies in social and environmental 
sustainability observed in the global South.

PART 1: LOCAL LEVEL INSTITUTIONS
1. Course introduction
2. Defining sustainability
3. Customary law and institutions
4. Property regimes
5. Common pool resources and common property regimes
6. Collective action theory
7. The consequences of formalizing / privatizing / 
individualizing customary tenure
8. Approaches to the legal recognition of customary tenure  

PART 2:  NATIONAL LEVEL INSTITUTIONS
1. Institutional forms
2. National policy making processes
3. Environmental impact mitigation and management
4. Regulating land tenure and access
5. Governing large-scale land acquisitions

PART 3:  GLOBAL AND MULTI-LATERAL INSTITUTIONS
1.  History and evolution of international law
2.  International environmental law
3.  International labor and human rights law
4.  Multi-lateral financial institutions
5.  Legislation in consumer blocs

PART 4: MARKET-BASED INSTRUMENTS
1. Governing beyond the state
2. Perspectives on certification
3. Perspectives on industry codes of conduct

PART 5: EMERGING FORMS OF GOVERNANCE
1. Multi-level governance
2. Hybrid institutions