Undergraduate Module Descriptor

LAW3016C: Legal Response to Environmental Destruction

This module descriptor refers to the 2023/4 academic year.

Module Aims

This cross-disciplinary module is designed and delivered in the knowledge that ‘interdisciplinarity’ lies at the heart of future legal and regulatory solutions to environmental challenges. By bringing together both Law and non-Law students across the Cornwall campus, the module aims to provide an exciting opportunity for you to collaborate across disciplines to generate genuinely new and innovative legal and regulatory solutions to environmental destruction including those based on the proposed international crime of ecocide. It aims for you to have ‘hands-on’ experience of being part of an interdisciplinary legal team by taking part in a simulated international criminal mooting/trial session on environmental destruction where you can demonstrate the knowledge and skills you have acquired in the module.

 

In terms of the substantive content, the overall aim of this module is to provide you with an understanding of environmental destruction, its evidential complexities, and the various legal responses to it, both nationally and internationally; to equip you with the skills to critically evaluate the effectiveness of these legal frameworks, and to facilitate the generation of new research, ideas, legal and policy solutions to environmental destruction.

 

Specific aims include:

  1. To introduce students to the concept of evidencing environmental destruction and its impact on individuals, communities, and the planet.

  2. To explore the various national and international legal frameworks that have been established to address environmental destruction, including case law, legislation, and treaties.

  3. To analyse the effectiveness of these legal frameworks, including their strengths and weaknesses, and the challenges that arise in their implementation.

  4. To examine the role of legal actors, such as judges, lawyers, expert witnesses, and international organizations, in the response to environmental destruction, and the impact of their actions on the environment.

  5. To develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, by engaging students in case studies and practical exercises that apply legal and evidential frameworks to real-world environmental issues.

  6. To encourage interdisciplinary thinking and teamwork, by drawing on scientific, social, and economic perspectives to construct a legal response to environmental destruction.

  7. To foster an appreciation for the importance of ethical considerations in the response to environmental destruction, including the rights of future generations and the need for a just transition to a sustainable future.

  8. To provide students with the skills to communicate complex issues related to environmental destruction in a legal 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 a thorough understanding of the role of evidence in legal responses to environmental destruction.
2. Critically evaluate environmental law, evidence and procedure combating environmental destruction.
Discipline-Specific Skills3. Assimilate and engage effectively with a range of primary and secondary legal resources in your writing
4. Coherently develop relevant interdisciplinary legal arguments and analyses.
Personal and Key Skills5. Collaborate in an interdisciplinary team to develop legal and policy strategies for tackling environmental problems;
6. Use appropriate evidence to support analysis and argument;
7. Demonstrate effective and accurate written communication skills in a manner appropriate to the context;