module specification

Environmental Law and Sustainability covers a wide range of concepts. It includes a consideration of the protection of natural resources through the traditional aspects of law but also through a range of principles and policy considerations.

Increasingly, the effectiveness of environmental protection requires a consideration of the impact of business, not only as part of the problem of environmental degradation, but also as part of the solution to the future protection of exhaustible natural resources.
Students will be able to explore a range of selected contemporary environmental issues including climate change and renewable energy. Issues of sustainable development are underpinned by aspects of environmental justice and will be considered from domestic and global perspectives.

Overall, the module will aim to contextualise environmental law within the wider constructs of socio-economic and ethical considerations.

This module aims to facilitate a critical approach to an understanding of environmental regulation and the policy through the exploration of contemporary issues at all levels of law and policy making (including the domestic, European and international).

There are many career opportunities within the environmental field including work as an environmental lawyer (public or private practice), public policy advisor, working within government agencies e.g. DEFRA or the Environmental Agency or for NGO’s such as Friends of the Earth.

This module supports graduate opportunity and employability by giving you key knowledge of a subject which is practised within the professional legal sector; and by giving you a host of transferable skills, including research, critical thinking and communication.
This module will provide you with the opportunity to choose a subject of assessment within the syllabus according to your own particular interests, in accordance with the Inclusive Assessment aims of the ESJ Framework.

The syllabus will be influenced by contemporary environmental issues and topics of interest selected for the research paper.

· overview of the environmental legislative framework and policy considerations within a domestic and global context
· international environmental law, private law, environmental protection and environmental governance
· environmental principles
· integrated pollution prevention and control
· the statutory regimes which regulate the pollution of land, air, water and space (global commons)
· domestic and international waste management
· climate change
· international law and sustainability legal frameworks
· sustainable development and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
· biodiversity and conservation
· law of the sea
· environmental justice and human rights (global north and global south)
· the socio- political and economic aspects of environmental law and the impact of non-state parties in environmental protection, trade, investment CSR and the environment

All these subjects pervade each of the Learning Outcomes 1, 2 and 3.

Learning & Teaching Strategy

Weekly two-hour lecture and one-hour seminar.

The lecture will be used for:
• Dissemination of knowledge through an overview of each topic with detailed guidance on appropriate aspects;
• An introduction to relevant academic literature;
• Guidance on learning strategies;
• Use of WebLearn and IT resources;
• Whole group questions and discussion.

The seminar will be used for the development of skills necessary to attain the module learning outcomes through:
• Written and oral questions/answers designed to reinforce fundamental rules, principles and cases;
• A range of step-by-step analytical exercises;
• Problem solving;
• IT tasks, such as research of cases and statutes;
• Legal writing;
• Oral presentation;
• Oral communication;
• Teamwork.

Blended Learning
All learning materials, previous examination questions and sample Q/A’s will be on blackboard for use in directed private study.

Student engagement will be encouraged in both lectures and seminars through weekly use of WebLearn for access to all of the above materials.

There will be required use of the professional legal databases, especially Westlaw and Lexis Library, for legal research.

Opportunities for reflective learning/pdp
Each weekly seminar will contain space for students to reflect on what they have learnt in relation to the overall syllabus. There will be frequent feedback opportunities structured into the timetable and a range of sample answers posted onto WebLearn.

Employability
Employability strategy will aim to acquaint students with a range of employment avenues both in the legal profession and in those professions into which legal qualifications and skills are transferable.

Student’s Study Responsibilities
The need for attendance, punctuality, preparation and engagement will be emphasised with particular reference to written and IT research, problem-solving, team-work, discussion, debate and critical awareness of the subject.

On successful completion of this module, you will be able to:
1. Demonstrate a systematic understanding of the key principles of environmental law and policy as well as issues of sustainability.
2. Demonstrate the ability to engage in effective research methods and methodology in relation to issues of environmental law and sustainability, showing appreciation of uncertainties and ambiguities in current knowledge.
3. Produce a critical report based on a topical environmental law and sustainability issue, that devises and sustains arguments which illustrate a contextual awareness of environmental law and interconnected policy considerations.

https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/D1D66B65-9A8E-0727-07E4-5A43574E82C9.html
Core Texts:
S Bell, D McGillivray, O Pedersen, E Lee and E Stokes, Environmental Law (10th edn, OUP 2024)
E Fisher, B Lange and E Scotford, Environmental Law Text, Cases and Materials (2nd edn, OUP 2019)

Other Texts:
P Birnie, A Boyle, and C Redgwell, International Law and The Environment (4th edn OUP 2021)
MC Cordonier Segger and DS Olawuyi, Sustainable Development Law: Principles, Practices, and Prospects (2nd edn, OUP 2025)
P Hill, Environmental Justice: A Very Short Introduction (OUP 2026)
M Huber, Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet (Verso 2022)
W Huck, Sustainable Development Goals (Hart Publishing 2022)
E Johansen, SV Busch and IU Jakobsen (eds), ‘The Law of the Sea and Climate Change (CUP 2021)
K Junker (ed), Environmental Law Across Cultures Comparisons for Legal Practice (Routledge 2020)
J Lin and J Peel, Litigating Climate Change in the Global South (OUP 2024)
DS Olawuyi, JJ González, H Mostert, M Fernando Montoya, and C Banet, Net Zero and Natural Resources Law Sovereignty, Security, and Solidarity in the Clean Energy Transition (OUP 2024)
M Robinson, Climate Justice: A Man-Made Problem With a Feminist Solution (Bloomsbury Publishing 2019)
J Williams, Climate Change* Is Racist (Icon Publishing 2021)

Journals:
Journal of Environmental Law
Environmental Law Review
Law Quarterly Review

Websites:

www.CIEL.org
www.UNFCCC.int
WWW.UNEP
www.friendsoftheearth.uk
www.clientearth.org

DATABASES
Westlaw Edge UK
Lexis+ UK