Environmental Law and Justice MA

Course content

What will you study on the MA Environmental Law and Justice?

Four core plus two optional modules are completed over terms one and two, with a Dissertation period in term three.

Modules

Each module is typically worth 20 credits, except the Dissertation, Work Integrated Learning and Practicum in International Organisations modules which are worth 60 credits each. The Work Integrated Learning and Practicum in International Organisations may be chosen to replace the Dissertation with prior agreement.

Additional optional modules available in Law

As well as the optional modules listed below, students can choose to study from a range of law modules in terms one and two.

Not all of the optional modules listed will be available in any one year. Module availability is dependent on staffing and the number of students wishing to take each module.

This core module on the MA Environmental Law and Justice aims to provide you with the skills and knowledge to understand contemporary environmental policy and the ethical challenges that it needs to address. The module also gives you an understanding of environmental responsibility, considering policy and social constructs on caring for the environment and different contexts on being accountable for harm or environmental wrongdoing. In this part of the course you’ll get the chance to critically examine ethical traditions and how these traditions inform particular forms of environmental policy and action; in particular the conflicts between continued exploitation of the environment and the contemporary environmental protection ‘movement’. Examining contemporary notions of environmental citizenship, the module examines rights and contracts based traditions including ethical issues associated with the ‘Commons’ and the notion of public ownership and responsibility for the environment. It also considers the relationship between individual and collective responsibility exploring in detail the role of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in developing environmental policy, monitoring environmental abuses and advocating for change in environmental law and policy and increased corporate environmental responsibility. In this module you’ll combine study of the legal, social, business, economic, and political aspects which influence and determine contemporary environmental policy. It considers ethical questions such as: To what extent do humans have a right to exploit nature in order to live? Should animals’ interests be a core factor in environmental policy? Should ownership be given over natural resources allowing commercial exploitation and manipulation of natural resources? Once you’ve completed this module you’ll have gained a critical understanding of contemporary environmental policy issues and the manner in which ethical considerations inform environmental policy.

This core module on the MA Environmental Law and Justice critically evaluates perspectives on green criminology, and crimes against the environment (including animals). It considers contemporary perspectives on green offending, the regulation of environmental problems, and global perspectives on green crimes, green criminality and the effectiveness of justice systems in resolving environmental problems. It also adopts a critical approach to theoretical debates on animal rights, the legal personhood of animals, and the tension between the continued exploitation of natural resources and the prosecution of environmental crime. In this module you will also critically examine the link between environmental offending and mainstream crimes, including the link between violence towards animals and violence towards humans and the extent to which corporate environmental crime constitutes a ‘crime of the powerful’ or a corporate-state crime. The module will require you to critically examine theoretical concepts and practical considerations in environmental justice and consider how examining environmental harms inevitably results in a wider definition of green ‘crime’ than simply considering those activities defined as such by the criminal law. The module will also help you to develop knowledge and skills appropriate to working in the environmental justice sector with NGOs, local authorities and other policy and enforcement bodies.

This module will provide you with an in-depth understanding of environmental governance and the central theoretical approaches on which its principles are based. You’ll be introduced to the idea of the governance spectrum ranging from a coercive mode and legal instruments to approaches that rely on the agency and knowledge of environmental resource users themselves. Various environmental policy instruments will be explored in depth, and lecture content will be supported by case studies drawing from the tutors’ research on green criminology and European environmental policy. You’ll also complete either a field trip or a role play exercise and workshops designed to help you learn how to apply governance principles to real life environmental policy problems.

This module prepares you to complete either a dissertation or an assessed work placement or a work based learning project. You will attend a series of lectures and workshops and online exercises address research methodologies, skills and employability. You will undertake a series of formative and summative assessments developing your critical and practical skills and leading to either; i) the production of a research proposal or ii) a critical review of the work of the organization you are to be placed with or work with. The satisfactory completion of the module will then allow you to proceed to writing a dissertation of 10-12,000 words or to embark on a work placement assessed by production of a project report / paper and exercises reflecting on your experience.

The module aims to enable you to undertake a substantial academic research project focussed on a key issue within your programme. It requires you to apply methodology, research design and method to the practical processes of undertaking a chosen research topic and presenting the findings. The dissertation requires you to draw upon the prerequisite module Research and Practice Skills but encourages you to demonstrate independence and self-discipline in researching a topic of interest and relevance to you and manage an extended project from conception to completion.

The module aims to provide you with an opportunity to undertake work experience commensurate with your postgraduate level of study and, by so doing, to advance your knowledge, critical thinking and understanding to an appropriate level. You will be provided with an opportunity to work alongside key decision makers in organisations where global governance occurs. Providing an alternative to the dissertation credit for your degree, the Practicum will enable you to develop advanced insight into core issues in global governance, developing your capacity for problem solving, interpretation and critical construction of knowledge.

The module aims to enable you to apply theoretical knowledge and research to anticipate and respond to challenges in a selected workplace experience. You can undertake this workplace experience as an internship that you negotiate yourself or in your current workplace or an existing voluntary role. It also aims to help you foster sustainable long term learning by requiring that you take responsibility for your own learning, design and negotiate learning goals and make informed judgments about your performance across the programme of study. The module will ask you to engage as active subjects in the assessment process, thus enhancing your capacity for transformative learning. By selecting a topic of interest grounded in your workplace experience you’ll be expected to demonstrate reflexivity, self-regulation and self-assessment in your journey towards personal and professional development.

This module aims to provide you with skills and knowledge to understand and critique the notion of sustainable development and the many manifestations it takes in policy and governance starting with the global blueprint of Agenda 21. An increasingly popular term, global governance refers to the collaborations of state and non-state actors in advocating, making laws and policies for and undertaking practical actions to address issues that have global scope in terms of impact and/or causality. This module will help you to understand new and emerging theorisations of governance, power and evidence as well as the normative and institutional premises of governance for sustainable development. You will gain a critical understanding of a range of global governance issues such as food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and healthy cities.

This module enables students to understand, analyse and comment upon the international law framework on minority rights and indigenous peoples under the United Nations, American, European, African and Asian systems, assessing their efficacy in dealing with violations.

This practical experience module provides the means for students to link academic work with ‘real world’ work experience related to their specific programme. The aim is to enable the student to conceptualise the relation of theory to policy decisions within the wider world context. This module also aims to develop and embed specific key skills which will facilitate career paths and employment in their chosen speciality. It is envisaged that the student will reflect and analyse areas of knowledge relevant to the placement learning experience and develop personal knowledge through review of learning. This learning experience provides students with the opportunity to enhance their skills of self-expression, communication, self-reliance, cooperation and team working within an area of work related to their chosen pathway.

Please note, this module cannot be taken in combination with the Work Integrated Learning (60 credit) module or the Practicum in International Organisations module.

This module explores criminological issues from a global perspective including the changing nature of crime and crime control in a 'globalised' world. It focuses on crimes which transcend national borders, the comparative analysis of different countries' approaches to dealing with crime, and the 'globalisation' of justice and policing. It will equip you to undertake your own international and or comparative research and analysis.

This module will help you critically explore the key institutions and frameworks that govern human rights at the international level and of the international policy context that promotes sustainable development, to examine how the two interact. You will examine the notion of rights as competing, contested and co-opted and question their ability to function in crisis situations. It focuses on issues of inclusion/exclusion and reflects on how the rights and ‘development’ of three ‘marginalised groups’ have been promoted. You’ll focus in particular on indigenous peoples, the caste system and gender inequality. The aim of this part of your studies is to question if current legal approaches to human rights are sufficient to bring sustainable development to groups currently marginalised.

This module will equip you with the critical understanding of the major theories concerning the nature of corporations, their role and function in society, the concerns surrounding corporate governance and corporate responsibility, and the laws and practices governing directorial conduct and company operation in selected countries.

The Bophal disaster, the tragedy of the Niger Delta and the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory are all examples of what appears to be systematic corporate human rights abuses which are not being adequately prevented or remedied. This module will enable you to understand how the sub-discipline business and human rights challenges State-centred architecture of international human rights law and delves into the responsibility of non-state actors such as multinational corporations in the area of human rights. It also challenges the idea that only individuals can commit international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes looking into corporate criminal and civil liability for human rights violations.

You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Module and programme information is indicative and may be subject to change.