Philip Hainbach

PhD Candidate

Philip holds a Master of Laws in "International and European Law: Trade and Investment Law" from the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) and a Bachelor of Laws from FernUniversität in Hagen (Germany). He advanced his studies in Barcelona (Spain) through specialized courses of the "International Economic Law and Policy Program" (IELPO LL.M.) as well as in Bern (Switzerland) at the World Trade Institute.

Prior to commencing his Ph.D. at Melbourne Law School he interned in dispute settlement with the Legal Affairs Division of the World Trade Organization and worked for three years as a law clerk at Clearingstelle EEG, a German alternative dispute resolution institution enacted under the German Renewable Energy Sources Act with the purpose of settling domestic renewable energy disputes.

Philip is furthermore part of the Global Economic Law Network (GELN), the Australian-German Climate and Energy College and the EU Centre on Shared Complex Challenges. He is currently undertaking his research remotely from Europe.

Thesis Title

Renewable Energies in International Trade and Investment Law

Thesis Summary

The thesis will critically analyse the coverage and treatment of domestic renewable energy policies in international economic law. It will focus on the interplay between the policy instruments that states use to foster a transition toward renewable energies and the conflicting constraints imposed by the legal regimes of international trade and investment law. A central goal of this analysis is to explore how the constraints applying to national energy transition policies have evolved over time (i.e. through hermeneutic shifts in interpretation by adjudicatory bodies and\or re-calibrated treaty-making by states) and whether this evolution leaves now sufficient policy space to reconcile states climate change mitigation objectives with contemporary international economic law.

Supervisors

  • International Economic Law
  • Globalisation and Law
  • International Dispute Resolution
  • International Trade Law
  • International Investment Law