ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

This course will provide students with basic tools to understand how environmental related issues are regulated at the International and European Union levels and how environmental laws and regulations are applied and enforced in the legal systems which will be considered.
As students are mainly supposed not to hold a legal specialist background, basic notions on the principles of International and EU law will be given, together with notions on the sources of law and some essential instructions on how to access legislative texts.
Since compliance with environmental laws is one of the first and compulsory actions to effectively safeguard and preserve the environment, the main objective of the course is to make students more familiar with legal tools aimed at protecting the environment in several regulatory areas. Therefore, at the end of the course they should be able to understand more in depth the implementation and enforcement mechanisms of regulatory frameworks within the legal systems which will be analysed and dealt with.

Students will learn how to identify applicable legislative acts in the context of the international, transnational and EU legal systems and how to access to them.
They will understand how to contextualize the applicable legal provisions in concrete cases and how breaches of environmental law could be addressed and settled, where necessary, depending on the legal systems taken into consideration.

Basic knowledge of the main legal systems where environmental laws are in force.
Brief history of environmental law.
Basic knowledge of the general principles of environmental law.
Basic knowledge of the sources of environmental law and their hierarchy, depending on the legal systems dealt with.
Identification of applicable environmental laws and their subsequent enforcement.

No prerequisites. Students are assumed not to hold a legal background.

- Introduction to Law
- Brief history of Environmental Law
- General Principles of Environmental Law
- Legal systems and institutions competent for protecting the Environment
- Basics of Environmental Law: key notions
- Sources of Environmental Law and their Hierarchy
- Basics of International Environmental Law - main international and multilateral agreements on environmental-related issues
- Origins, Principles and Sources of EU Environmental Law
- Sector regulation
- Enforcement of Environmental Law
- Green Public Procurement
- Case-study analyses and possible workshops
- Focus on Water Law

COMPULSORY

1) E. Fischer, Environmental Law: A very short introduction, Oxford University Press, 2017
2) Legislative acts and judgments from time to time indicated during the lessons and uploaded on Moodle.
3) Lecture notes.

OPTIONAL

P. Sands, J. Peel, Principles of International Environmental Law, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. , pp. 21/51; pp. 101/128; pp. 197-249; pp. 295-331

The exam will consist of an Intermediate Test (see Option A). In alternative, a Full Exam is available (see Option B).

Option A) Only for those students who are actively attending lessons in presence (it means regularly participating and interacting at class debates so that a good understanding of course contents is assessed) a Test is provided at the end of the Course. It is a 10/20 mins oral or written exam (to be decided jointly between the teacher and students along lessons) on a particular topic chosen by the student from among those covered in the course programme .

Option B) Full Exam (for students who can not - or are not able - to pass the above mentioned Test) on the whole course contents at the end of the course. It is a written exam with open-ended questions.

The test/exam assessment grid will be as follows: <18 insufficient, 18-23 sufficient, 24-27 average/good, 28-30 very good, 30 cum laude excellent/outstanding. The minimum mark to pass is 18/30

Frontal lectures and possible workshops.
Seminars with external invited lecturers and following group discussions.
Attendance is recommended.

English

Lessons will start on 23 February 2023.

Please, check this page and Moodle for any possible update.

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