Spring School Criminal Law and the Anthropocene

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST SHOULD BE SUBMITTED TO  springschoolcla@santannapisa.it

Course description

Sant'Anna School, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, and Universität Basel organize the Spring School on Criminal Law and the Anthropocene Cross-disciplinary perspectives and critical approaches. 

The Spring School aims to explore and debate the significant implications of the Anthropocene framework for Criminal Law from methodological, conceptual, normative, and practical perspectives. It will take place in Pisa from May 25th to 29th, 2026. 

The Spring School aims to provide participants with a comprehensive and critical understanding of the implications of the Anthropocene for Criminal Law (see the attached Expression of Interest for further information and the program).

Course target 

Eligible participants for the course include students who have completed or are in the process of completing a master's degree, PhD students, and post-docs who have obtained their doctoral degree no more than five years ago (Early Career Researchers).

Training objectives

The Spring School provides selected participants with a highly interdisciplinary program that welcomes voices from criminal law, including legal theory and other fields of law, as well as areas beyond law. 

The program (40 hours distributed over five days) is organized into three thematic streams: 

• Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Anthropocene

• Fundamentals of Law and/in/for the Anthropocene

• Criminal Law and/in/for the Anthropocene

Teaching methods

The program offers an intensive, residential, and inclusive educational experience structured around four thematic streams and various formats. 

Lectures delivered by internationally recognized academics comprehensively address the multifaceted concept of the Anthropocene, while keynote speeches provide critical perspectives aimed at problematizing the implications of this viewpoint for modern legal systems. 

The thematic panels are designed to host scholars with diverse perspectives who engage in critical conversations about the Anthropocene and the transformations it entails for law, particularly criminal law.

The Spring School also aims to stimulate research and support innovative projects on this topic. To that end, the program actively involves selected participants through writing workshops. 

During these sessions, participants share draft papers based on their application submissions. Each participant discusses their paper in a group setting, following a precise methodology, and receives feedback and guidance from more experienced peers and faculty on how to further develop their research projects.

Attendance certificate

At the end of the Course the School will issue a certificate of attendance.