The aim of this module is to introduce you to key issues in environmental law including its potential and its limitations as a tool for environmental protection. The module explores the conceptual, theoretical and historical foundations of environmental law as well as the values, principles and rights that inform its development. This provides the foundational knowledge for the module’s exploration of environmental law in practice. The module explores the formulation and implementation of legal mechanisms for environmental protection at the domestic, regional, and international levels. This entails discussion of the actors involved in environmental law and policy development, and the private and public law frameworks in which environmental law is embedded. This facilitates critical analysis of environmental law’s functioning and future development. This module supports you to apply environmental law knowledge to evaluations of various environmental law regimes. These may include, for example, waste law, biodiversity protection, conservation, pollution, and climate change. This discussion will enable you to develop your own arguments, supported by theory and legal sources, about environmental law’s application and effectiveness as a tool for environmental protection.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Identify and explain values, principles and theories that inform the development of environmental law.
Critically analyse the formulation, functioning and implementation of environmental law at the domestic, regional and international levels.
Apply knowledge about environmental law to evaluate various environmental law regimes.
Develop arguments about environmental law’s effectiveness and limitations as a tool for environmental protection today and in the future.
Assessment
25048-02 : Essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions
Assessment:3,500-word essay
Method(s) of reassessment: Resit failed component(s)
