Environmental Law

Environmental law is the law of environmental problems. Climate change, planning, air quality, water quality, waste, and nature conservation all give rise to a range of different legal issues that require significant legal expertise to deal with. This course fosters that expertise by providing an advanced introduction to UK environmental law.

This course takes into consideration the socio-political and physical context in which environmental law operates and it explores the innovative, complex and ever-expanding case law and legislation on the subject. Environmental law builds on the core public law subjects as well as other areas such as criminal law and tort law. The teaching method for this course is via a series of inclusive seminars and tutorials. Seminars are also supplemented with guest speakers from the legal profession and the environmental policy realm.

By the end of this course, students will have gained knowledge of the substantive legal aspects of environmental law in the UK; understanding of the complexity of environmental problems and how that complexity affects the application of the law; and knowledge of how environmental law relates to core legal areas, particularly administrative law and EU law where relevant.