Postgraduate Module Descriptor

LAWM711: Environmental and Energy Law

This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.

Module Aims

Because environmental and climate change issues are increasingly important to society, this course aims to allow you the opportunity to question how effectively environmental law can protect human health and the environment. The course aims to address practical and pressing problems with a particular emphasis on issues that arise in the energy debate including sustainability, project finance and climate change. The course questions how we can limit environmental damage in the future and addresses important issues of environmental justice, energy security and climate change adaptation. There is a practical end to the course as it aims to review various forms of regulation in the energy context.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Demonstrate detailed understanding of how law seeks to limit damage to human health and the environment, particularly in the context of energy production and consumption;
2. Demonstrate detailed knowledge of regulatory theories and the policies pursued to protect the environment;
3. Demonstrate critical awareness of different models of environmental and energy regulation;
Discipline-Specific Skills4. Demonstrate detailed and comprehensive knowledge of international, European Union and UK legal instruments, case-law, statutory materials and critical legal literature as well as critical awareness of their contextual implications;
5. Demonstrate a flexible and innovative ability to analyse complex legal problems, identify the relative significance of applicable rule and principles, and select appropriate methods for investigating and critically evaluating legal responses to such problems;
6. Apply detailed and comprehensive legal knowledge to a problem and argue alternative approaches;
Personal and Key Skills7. Identify, retrieve and use the full range of library-based and electronic resources efficiently and autonomously for specific learning tasks;
8. Demonstrate the ability to communicate well orally and in writing in a manner appropriate to this discipline.
9. Clarify, plan and undertake tasks confidently and independently, individually and/or with others, to reflect critically on the learning process and to make use of feedback effectively;
10. Demonstrate the ability to work independently, within a limited time frame, to complete a specified task.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover the following topics:

Introduction to environmental law
Environmental principles
Environmental regulation – theory and practice
Enforcement of environmental law
Environmental regulation and environmental media (land, air and water)
Protection of natural resources (bio-diversity loss and historic pollution)
Climate change law and policy
Energy Law and Policy (particularly EU Energy policy) - fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable energy
Project finance and environmental and energy law

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
302700

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities121 x 3 hour introductory lecture session and 9 x 1 hour overview lectures relating to the material which will be the subject of the following week’s seminar. Lectures which introduce students to particular topics and will provide the foundation for independent guided study.Lecture led seminar classes (10 x 3 hours)
Guided independent study60Preparation for (written) formative and sumative assessments
Guided independent study160Preparation of seminars, including seminar presentations
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities18Lecturer-led, two-hour seminars (total of nine). Students will be expected to participate in the making at least one presentation, either individually or, if numbers are large, as part of a team, during the course of the seminar programme.
Guided independent study50Other guided independent study

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/

 

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/library/research/guides/energylaw.cfm

This is an Energy law research website