NLUD-SOAS Joint LLM/MA in Environmental Justice in South Asia

This course is an introductory module to environmental justice that aims at giving students a solid and comprehensive foundation of key concepts of environmental justice and law and a grounding in some of the most topical and foundational debates with special reference to South Asia.

These include the role of justice frameworks in relation to environmental protection, as well as key debates in environmental legal regulation. The aim is to provide a platform from which to better appreciate some of the central tensions and dynamics in the study of environmental justice and law generally.

The course will introduce environmental justice in its South Asian context, in historical perspective, in a domestic, comparative and regional context from a theoretical and practical perspective.

Syllabus

The course includes an introduction to environment justice in historical perspective, a contextualisation in terms of development debates and environmental justice, an examination of the place of domestic law in South Asian countries in relation to international debates, an analysis of principles of environmental law, an introduction to the main regulatory techniques, specific consideration of enforcement through courts and different actors relevant in environmental law.

Learning outcomes

• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of environmental justice in its broader context, including its political, economic, social and ecological dimensions.
• Evaluate the foundational concepts and principles of the law concerning the conservation and use of the environment, with special reference to South Asia.
• Apply advanced analytical tools to critically assess environmental justice and implementing policies and legal instruments, particularly in the South Asian context.
• Engage critically with contemporary debates and challenges within the field of environmental justice.

Workload

1-hour lecture per week, 1-hour seminar per week. 

This module offers a introduction to the legal, policy and institutional aspects of the protection of the environment at the international level.

In a context where international environmental law and policy has been framed around a global North-South axis, this course focuses more specifically on the place and contribution of South Asia in these broader discourses. The course explores the range of laws and norms that impact on global environmental problems, focusing more particularly on those that are of particular relevance to South Asia.

The course provides an introduction to the principles of international environmental law (such as the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and the precautionary principle), human rights and participatory rights, examines questions related to compliance, effectiveness and enforcement of international environmental law; the governance and institutional framework governing the environment at the international level and links with other branches of international law, such as human rights.

Syllabus

• South Asia and international environmental law, policy and institutions. 
• Principles of international environmental law (such as the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and the precautionary principle). 
• Human rights, participatory rights questions related to compliance, effectiveness and the enforcement of international environmental law, including non-compliance mechanisms. 

Learning outcomes 

• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the international laws and policies related to the environment, placing particular emphasis on the context of South Asia.
• Evaluate the foundational concepts and principles governing the conservation and utilisation of the environment at the international level, with a specific focus on South Asia.
• Apply advanced analytical tools to critically assess international environmental policies, considering their broader political, economic, social, and ecological dimensions, particularly in the South Asian context.
• Engage critically with contemporary debates and challenges prevalent in the field of international environmental policy.

Teaching and learning

1-hour lecture, 1-hour seminar per week. 

This module aims to acquaint you with various issues bearing on research in the social sciences in general, and economics and political economy, in particular. It introduces a range of approaches to
research and seeks to help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of different methodological approaches. The objective of the module is to equip you with the basic tools to undertake independent research and rigorously evaluate different research methods.

This module examines ‘water justice’ in the global South from a combined Law and Development Studies perspective. The three main themes in the course are water rights/right to water, the modalities of access to water, and social movements on water issues. The course discusses examples from Asia, Africa and Latin America, and selected examples from the global North. It seeks to provide students with a broad understanding of the multi-faceted issues arising in the water sector from the local to the international level.

Students will be able to demonstrate the ability to understand and analyse issues concerning water law and policy, conflicts and governance from a broad perspective encompassing their economic, social and environmental dimensions. Students will acquire knowledge of basic concepts and principles underlying the regulation, management and conservation of water, focusing on national, regional examples in the international context in which governance evolves and the increasing importance of conflicts in the water sector.

This course focuses attention to social movements in relation to civil society and to the development project itself. It examines some current positions on theorising 'civil society' and 'new social movements'.

This module is concerned in the broadest sense with nature protection and concerns around the sixth mass extinction. It addresses specifically law and policy around the broad themes of biodiversity, wildlife & habitats. It examines theoretical and practical dimensions of international and national legal and institutional arrangements concerning some of the most crucial environmental issues of our time. This includes the various dimensions of the biodiversity regime, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, its protocols, related legal instruments and related developments at the national level. These cover a wide variety of issues ranging from conservation and use of biodiversity in general to specific implementation mechanisms like ‘access and benefit sharing’, measures addressing environmental safety in the context of the release of genetically modified organisms (biosafety), and proposed measures to take into account social and cultural dimensions of biodiversity conservation and use. This module also addresses law and policy focused on the protection of nature and animals (wildlife), including a focus on the protection of migratory species and specific conservation techniques, such as the regulation of trade (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). The course also covers measures for the protection of specific habitats, ecosystems and biomes, including forests and polar areas, where distinct legal regimes have made a significant contribution to the development of environmental law.

This module provides an overview of the developments in environmental law, policy and jurisprudence in India.

It provides an in depth understanding of the key principles that govern environmental law, provides an overview of the laws that protect air, water, land, forests, wildlife and biodiversity in India. It is designed to provide an advanced introduction to the contemporary challenges within the Indian context, provide critical insights into the changing nature of the legislative approach and also the approach adopted by the judiciary over the years.

The module also provides insights into the challenges of implementation and compliance, including institutional challenges that hamper the effective enforcement. The modules also provides an overview of current challenges in the field while also highlighting innovations that address the ground level realities.This module is a foundational course for the environment justice clinic.

Syllabus

• Historical Developments of Environmental Law
• Constitution and the Environment
• Key Principles and their developments
• Pollution Laws (Water and Air Act)
• Environment Protection Act Forest and Wildlife Act Biodiversity Act Enforcement and compliance.

Learning outcomes 

• Identify and develop a critical understanding of the predominant issues and challenges of the law concerning the environment in India.
• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the basic concepts and principles and an advanced understanding of the issues underlying the conservation and use of the environment in India.
• Apply advanced analytical tools to critically assess environmental law and policy in India.
• Engage critically with contemporary debates and challenges prevalent in the field.

Teaching and learning

3-hours of lectures, 2-hours of tutorials per week. 

This module examines international, regional and national legal and institutional arrangements concerning the conservation and use of natural resources.

It introduces legal principles relevant to the conservation and use of natural resources in international and national law. This module focuses on the international law aspects of natural resource use and conservation, with particular emphasis given to the South Asian region. This module examines simultaneously economic development aspects of natural resource regulation, social development aspects and environmental aspects.

This module specifically seeks to make the links between the exploitation of natural resources for macro-economic development and subsistence and other uses of natural resources for food security and health needs as well as the links between use for economic development and conservation, for instance, in the context of broader policy challenges such as climate change.

This module starts with a background of natural resource regulation, including basic principles of international law relevant to natural resources, such as sovereignty and related concepts for natural resource appropriation, sustainable development and human rights. The module then moves on to examine a number of more specific issues in the South Asian region, within the context of selected natural resources. Natural resources considered may include water, genetic resources, forests, minerals and energy.

Syllabus

• Overview of Natural Resources Law and Policy in South Asia
• South Asian Natural Resource Governance and Management – Institutional, Legal and Policy Architecture
• Natural Resource Challenges in South Asia
• Regional Ecological Cooperation in Natural Resource Management

Learning outcomes

• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the law and policy concerning natural resources in South Asia.
• Evaluate the foundational concepts and principles underlying the conservation and use of natural resources in South Asia and an advanced understanding of the differences between the region.
• Apply advanced analytical tools to critically assess natural resources law and policy in South Asia.
• Engage critically with contemporary debates and challenges prevalent within the field of natural law and policy in the South Asian regions.

Teaching and learning

3 hours of lectures and 2 hours of tutorials per week. 

This module combines two distinct aspects.

The first half will provide basic in quantitative research methods for gathering, description and analysis of quantitative information in the social, business, and management sciences. The second half (environmental justice clinic) will focus on combining the theory and the practice, increasing students’ knowledge of the law in particular fields, enabling students to apply their theoretical knowledge of the law learnt in the classroom to practical situations.

The quantitative research methods element of the course contains basic research methods including discussions of data gathering issues and techniques; sources of data and potential biases; graphical and numerical data description techniques including simple linear regression, sampling behaviour of averages; point and interval estimation procedures; concepts in hypothesis testing for comparing two populations, simple and multiple linear regression; p-values and significance levels. This environmental justice clinic component is based on a strong commitment to promoting equality, diversity, and tolerance not just on campus, but also in the wider community.

This module is designed to benefit vulnerable individuals by improving their access to justice and promoting the rule of law and therefore contributing to closing the gap on the inequality in accessing justice. The module embraces the pedagogical and community value of legal clinical education, including its emphasis on critique and reflection. It aims at making a broader use of clinical legal pedagogy to provide valuable learning experiences to students.

Syllabus

• Quantitative research methods: Introduction and the Quantitative Research Process; Research Methods and Design; Probability Distributions; Inferential Statistics; Corelation and Regression. 
• Environmental justice clinic: During this component, students will undertake practice in their individual settings. Towards the end of the course students will meet in class to present upon and share their practical experiences.

Learning outcomes 

• To be able to identify and evaluate various sampling methodologies, assessing their suitability and effectiveness across diverse situations.
• Assess the different types of variables, and produce graphical and numerical descriptive statistics that align with best practices in the field.
• Apply the probability rules and concepts, to a range of discrete and continuous random variables.
• Critically reflect on practical law/policy experience, identifying and analysing the challenges and complexities in advancing environmental justice, and proposing informed solutions.

This course will focus on the intersection between climate justice and climate change law and policy.

It will be framed around an understanding of justice linked to equity, both within countries and among countries. The main axis for understanding climate justice at the international level is differentiation or the idea that equity requires the global North to do more than the global South in addressing climate change.

At the national level, inequality calls for ensuring that the most marginalised and poorest citizens are not made to bear the brunt of policies aimed at addressing climate change. This course will frame these issues by emphasising the global South-global North dimensions of the international climate change regime and by focusing on India as one particularly important example for understanding climate justice at the national level.

Syllabus

• Climate justice
• International climate change regime and the global South
• Principles of the international climate change regime
• National responses Carbon markets, equity and forests loss and damage and disaster risk management
• Just transition Human rights, displacement and migration
• Climate Change-related Litigation

Learning outcomes

• Identify the predominant issues and challenges presented by the internationa climate change regime.
• Articulate climate change law and policy and frame it within the context of climate justice, its implications and significance.
• Evaluate the distinct climate change challenges faced by India and the broader global South within the overarching international narrative.
• Engage critically with contemporary debates and challenges prevalent in the field of climate justice and climate change law.

Teaching and learning

10 hours of lectures, 5 hours of tutorials per week. 

The dissertation is a supervised piece of research on a topic to be agreed between the student and the chosen supervisor. The dissertation provides students with the opportunity to develop an original piece of academic work in an independent, albeit supervised, way.

The topic of the dissertation can relate to any subject-area covered in any of the modules of the LLM in Environmental Justice. Typically, the dissertation aims to tackle a theoretical, doctrinal, jurisprudential or policy issue that is relevant in contemporary legal scholarship and/or legal policy affairs. As such, students are invited to propose a topic for the dissertation that closely matches their study interest, or practical actual or prospective work or professional experience.

Typically, the dissertation is expected to be bibliographic, on the basis of library, internet, and archival research. Students are encouraged to use original empirical evidence, that the student is expected to collect and analyse in the course of their studies, subject to supervisor's approval and the student's capacity in the relevant research methodology. 

The dissertation entails that the student will develop and demonstrate their analytic, argumentative, writing and presentation skills. The length of the dissertation will be maximum 12,000 words.

Syllabus

• Library research for the dissertation
• Law research methods
• Citation and referencing
• Supervision
• Ethical clearance
• Academic misconduct

Learning outcomes

• Engage critically with contemporary debates and challenges in the area of work chosen for the dissertation
• Demonstrate development of critical understanding of a particular topic
• Demonstrate capacity to plan and carry out independent research work

The dissertation is a supervised piece of research on a topic to be agreed between the student and the chosen supervisor.

The dissertation provides students with the opportunity to develop an original piece of academic work in an independent, albeit supervised, way. The topic of the dissertation can relate to any subject-area covered in any of the modules of the LLM in Environmental Justice. Typically, the dissertation aims to tackle a theoretical, doctrinal, jurisprudential or policy issue that is relevant in contemporary legal scholarship and/or legal policy affairs. As such, students are invited to propose a topic for the dissertation that closely matches their study interest, or practical actual or prospective work or professional experience.

Typically, the dissertation is expected to be bibliographic, on the basis of library, internet, and archival research. Students are encouraged to use original empirical evidence, that the student is expected to collect and analyse in the course of their studies, subject to supervisor's approval and the student's capacity in the relevant research methodology.

The dissertation entails that the student will develop and demonstrate their analytic, argumentative, writing and presentation skills. The length of the dissertation will be maximum 12,000 words.

Syllabus

• Library research for the dissertation
• Law research methods
• Citation and referencing
• Supervision
• Ethical clearance
• Academic misconduct

Learning outcomes

• Engage critically with contemporary debates and challenges in the area of work chosen for the dissertation. 
• Demonstrate development of critical understanding of a particular topic. 
• Demonstrate capacity to plan and carry out independent research work.

Teaching and learning

1 hour of project supervision per week.