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International Environmental Law

Course leader: TBC
Two terms (40 units)

The course will look at the content and evolution of international environmental law with a special focus upon international treaties that deal with global environmental issues and conservation, as well as exploring the interface between environmental and developmental issues.

The course will:

• Explain the evolution of international environmental law, the relevant principles and concepts.
• Show how these principles and concepts apply in relation to specific international environmental agreements.
• Examine the practical and political difficulties in getting international agreements on environmental problems, particularly those environmental problems that can be labelled 'global'.
• Examine the content of 'environmental rights' (both non-anthropocentric and anthropocentric) and the extent to which they have influenced the debate surrounding, and content of, international environmental agreements.
• Examine the meaning of the concept of sustainable development, especially in the light of trade and environmental disputes and examine the way in which conflicts between these interests have been dealt with by international tribunals.
• Examine the effectiveness of international environmental law and especially the role of international organisations and dispute resolution procedures.

This course is assessed on the basis on class performance (20%) and a three hour (plus ten minutes reading time) examination. Students must make a presentation and produce two pieces of written work as part of this course.

Main text:

• Birnie, P.W. & A.E. Boyle, International law and the environment (2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). ISBN: 0-19-876553-3.