International Environmental Law

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Source relevant legal materials, including international conventions, statutes, case law on international environmental law.
• Communicate legal arguments and opinions within the context of international environmental law clearly, accurately and objectively.
• Identify and critically evaluate legal and policy responses to environmental challenges.
• Identify legal concepts and principles and apply to breaches of international environmental law.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Contemporary global challenges facing international environmental law and its governance.
• The historical and political context and development of international environmental law.
• The core concepts and principles underpinning international environmental law, and their application.
• The sources of international environmental law and the role played by international courts, tribunals and other relevant actors.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Communicate arguments in writing and reference sources appropriately.
• Undertake independent research and access primary and secondary sources effectively.
• Analyse complex written texts and evaluate different types of arguments.
• Construct arguments based on premises drawn from various sources.

This module will examine:

• The development of international environmental law with reference to the historic and political context;
• The sources of international environmental law;
• The governance of international environmental law, including the respective roles of the various actors and institutions;
• The core concepts of international environmental law, such as sustainable development and its underlying principles;
• Contemporary global challenges facing international environmental law and its governance.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods:

One 2-hour seminar per week

Learning methods include:

• Essential and additional directed reading, as per distributed reading lists reproduced on Blackboard;
• Engagement with current legal or commercial developments to ensure that you can relate the material being discussed in class to contemporary issues

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Sands and Peel (2018). Principles of International Environmental Law. Cambridge University Press.

Birnie, Boyle & Redgwell's (2019). International Law and the Environment. Oxford University Press.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External