Course Code : LAW 412
Course Title : Environmental Law
Weekly Teaching Hour: 1 (2-hour) seminar each week,
5 (1-hour) tutorials scheduled during the year
Who may enrol : Compulsory course for year 4 (Senior) LLB students .
Prerequisites : Previously studied and passed a Laws course
Lecturer : To be announced on August 2020
Description : The air we breathe. The food we eat. The ground we live on. Environmental protection poses unique challenges to the law. In this course on environmental law, we critically assess the role that law has to play in regulating and protecting the environment by examining a range of contemporary environmental issues including climate change, nature conservation, and pollution control. We will look at English, EU, and international environmental law. We consider how relevant aspects of these bodies of law apply to the complexities of environmental problems that cross borders and are ever changing, and which implicate ingrained social behaviours.
We will look at a range of regulatory philosophies and mechanisms, ranging from traditional approaches such as ‘command and control’ regulation of pollution, to the establishment of trading regimes in carbon, to the ways in which environmental impacts are assessed and evaluated before the development of land or the adoption of strategic social and economic plans. We will consider how environmental philosophies such as environmental justice inform, inspire and critique environmental law.
This course is ideal for those interested in contemporary environmental issues and disputes and is a useful stepping-stone for those wishing to work in private, commercial practice as well as for those students wishing to enter the NGO/public sector.
Recommended Textbook (s) and Supplementary Books :
- Liz Fisher, Bettina Lange and Eloise Scotford, Environmental Law: Text, Cases and Materials (2nd ed, OUP 2019), supplemented with materials (provided)
- Jane Holder and Maria Lee, Environmental Protection, Law and Policy: Text and Materials (CUP 2007)
- Environmental Law, 8 edition , by Stuart Bell (Author), Donald McGillivray (Author), Ole Pedersen (Author), OUP Oxford; ISBN-10: 9780199583805, ISBN-13: 978-0199583805
Course Assessment:
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Class Participation 10%,
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Mid-term Examination 30%,
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Assignments 10%, 2 x formative essays
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Final Examination 50%, 50% Seen 2-hour written examination,
50% Essay (5,000 words)
Attendance 95 % compulsory.