| Unit name | Environmental Law |
|---|---|
| Unit code | LAWD30123 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Professor. Stokes |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | University of Bristol Law School |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Why is this unit important?
Environmental problems are amongst the most urgent and complex of our time. Worsening climate change effects, biodiversity loss, and air and water pollution, for example, pose major challenges for law. There can be uncertainty over facts and underlying values, disagreement about the appropriate response, conceptual difficulties in translating policy intentions into specific legal requirements, and practical difficulties in implementing them. The Environmental Law unit introduces foundational ideas and frameworks for understanding and thinking critically about how law responds to challenges such as these. It draws on a range of contemporary environmental problems in different governance contexts (in the UK and, where relevant, at EU and international levels) to examine the role of law in protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development, and its potential to bring about positive change.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
Environmental law is a subject in its own right but one that that involves and builds on a range of other areas, such as administrative and public law, EU law, property law, criminal law, tort law, and public international law. This optional unit is ideal for those interested in how existing legal doctrines and frameworks are used to address contemporary environmental problems, and the role of law in developing new and innovative responses. The unit also reflects and contributes to the University’s commitment to Education for Sustainable Development.
An overview of content
This unit is an introduction to the subject and covers foundational issues such as:
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
You will be introduced to foundational ideas in environmental law and acquire knowledge of a range of substantive topics, such as the legal regulation of biodiversity, single-use plastics, and climate change. You will explore what makes environmental problems distinctive and how environmental law builds on core legal subjects to develop legal rules, principles, frameworks, theories and practices of environmental protection. You will have opportunities to reflect upon and evaluate examples of law and legal reasoning in respect of some of the main environmental and sustainability challenges of our time. The formative and summative assessment will allow you hone your skills in legal research, writing, analysis and argumentation, and you will be encouraged to work collaboratively, generate ideas and practice effective communication through interactive seminar discussions.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this unit you will be able to:
The unit will be delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars (timetabled classes), and online learning materials and activities (eg directed readings, links to videos and other recordings, discussion board).
Lectures are designed to impart knowledge and develop understanding as well as encouraging individual critical thinking. Seminar materials and activities are designed to enable you to build on previous learning, gain further information, broaden perspective, reflect on and address knowledge gaps, deepen comprehension, and practise analytical and close reading skills. Seminar discussions allow opportunities to practise and develop skills in synthesising diverse material and crafting clear, credible arguments.
The formative assessment (which does not contribute to the summative grade) and summative assessment provide further opportunities to undertake independent learning and research, and to develop and apply relevant knowledge and understanding, and critical analytical, evaluative and argumentative skills in addressing a specific question / questions of environmental law.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Through teaching sessions and materials, you will be provided with a range of opportunities to develop your knowledge, understanding, critical thinking and analytical skills, as well as support in terms of undertaking appropriate research and approaching essay questions. Teaching sessions will offer different opportunities (eg answering seminar questions, group discussions) for continuing feedback as you progress through the unit.
In addition, you will have the opportunity to complete a formative assessment released early in the term, comprising a 500-word essay plan or introduction. You will receive formal written feedback on it alongside more generic feedback in teaching sessions.
Collectively these activities are designed to prepare you for the summative assessment.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
One summative assessment comprising a 3,000-word research essay.
The assessment will engage all of the Intended Learning outcomes for this unit.
When assessment does not go to plan
When a student fails the unit and is eligible to resubmit, the unit will be reassessed on a like-for-like basis.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessment required for credit in the usual way.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. LAWD30123).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
