Module LAW1016C for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
LAW1016C: A Legal Foundation for Environmental Protection
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
The aim of this module is to introduce you to the challenges that we face in environmental law and the difficulties associated with balancing different values and interests that people, businesses and nations have in decisions that affect their environment. Planning decisions permit development that can impact our ecosystems, and they limit development to prevent harm. Businesses, industry, the economy, our ecosystems and ultimately our planet are all impacted by decisions that are made on a local, national and global basis to permit or prevent development, and this module will introduce you to the systems and procedures that facilitate these controls.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
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Module-Specific Skills | 1. describe the principles and foundations that underpin environmental law and policy 2. identify and understand the role and function of the state, judiciary regulatory bodies, and non-governmental organisations involved in environmental protection and law making. |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. relate law and policy to environmental problems 4. develop a reasoned argument. at a foundational level 5. evaluate and articulate weaknesses in the arguments of others at a foundational level |
Personal and Key Skills | 6. make oral presentations on a selected topic and defend an argument orally 7. reflect upon individual learning journey 8. work independently and manage workload effectively |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
The module begins by considering the development of environmental concern over the last 60 years and how the law has responded. The module looks at the scope of environmental law and its relevance to your studies. The module will then build on this introduction and will include the following topics:-
- The challenges we face in Environmental Law – reflecting on our history and the role of law in navigating environmental crises.
- Foundational principles in environmental law – taking precaution, preventing harm from happening in the first place and the principle that where there is pollution, that the polluter should be held accountable.
- Reconciling conflicting attitudes and interests with a view to protecting the environment.
- Navigating the planning system and the role of planning in sustainable development
- Environmental Assessment and Permitting – a right to pollute the planet, or an effective example of ‘command and control’ type regulation?
- Legal mechanics for the non-lawyer – the role of the courts in environmental law - how should environmental wrongdoers be punished?
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
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32 | 118 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
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Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 20 | Interactive lectures: Core content will be delivered and explored during interactive lectures |
Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 4 | Mock Public hearing |
Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 8 | Workshops |
Guided Independent Study | 40 | Individual acquisition and widening learning on topics |
Guided Independent Study | 28 | Deepening task based activities conducted independently and as part of a peer-led group |
Guided Independent Study | 50 | Consolidation task-based activities including preparation of formative and summative work |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
An Electronic Learning Environment (ELE) will accompany the course.
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Basic Reading:
- Bell and McGillivray, Pedersen, Lees, Stokes, Environmental Law (9th edn, OUP 2017)
- Elizabeth Fisher, Bettina Lange, and Eloise Scotford, Environmental Law: Text, Cases & Materials (2nd Edition, OUP 2019)
- Wolf and Stanley on Environmental Law, Wolf, F and Stanley, N (6th edition, 2013) Routledge Taylor and Francis
- Finch and Fafinski, Legal Skills, OUP (7th Edition, 2019).
- Kramer, EC Environmental Law, Sweet and Maxwell (8th Edition, 2016)
- Connie, Bradney and Burton, English Legal System in Context (5th Edition, 2010), OUP, Oxford
- Partington, M, Introduction to the English Legal System (2019) OUP Oxford