LWMECL: Environmental and Climate Law

Module code: LWMECL

Module provider: School of Law

Credits: 20

Level: 7

When you’ll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Professor Benoit Mayer , email: b.p.mayer@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2025/6

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: No

Last updated: 3 April 2025

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module aims to provide students with a detailed knowledge and understanding of certain key areas of environmental and climate law. The main focus will be on national developments, but reference will also be made to developments in European Union law, international law, and foreign law when relevant. The first part of the module will explore the foundations of environmental law, including the attempts to define the environment, the main principles (eg the precautionary approach), the regulation of environmental pollution, and legal and policy initiatives aimed at protecting nature. The second part of the module will explore more thoroughly the law aimed at addressing climate change at the international and national level, including a comparative overview of national laws and policies and a critical engagement with the prospects for climate litigation. The third part of the module will consider tools applicable to environmental and climate law, including environmental impact assessment, tort law, criminal law, and human rights law.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. understand the main legal norms and policy tools aimed at advancing the protection of the environment and the mitigation of climate change,
2. think critically about whether and how the law generally, and specific norms and tools specifically, can advance the protection of the environment and the mitigation of climate change, including by formulating policy recommendations,
3. engage in reflective, analytical class discussion on these topics,
4. use advanced critical reading skills in relation to primary and secondary sources,
5. write a research-based essay

Module content

The module will consist of 11 one-hour lectures and 9 two-hour seminars. In general, seminars will build on the contents of the lecture taught in the previous week. Lectures will be taught by several teachers, while seminars will be taught by the module convenor.

Week 1

Lecture: environmental regulation at multiple scales (Professor Robert van der Noort CBE FSA PFHEI (Vice-Chancellor))

• Discussion of the definition and scope of environmental law, history, interdisciplinarity (eg scientific foundations, role of values – social and political factors in the construction of the environment), the relation between environmental law and policy;
• Explanation of the way the course is run and organization of the presentations
• Case study: the Protection of the River Thames

Week 2

Seminar: principles of environmental law; regulation

• Discussion of the main principles of environmental law, including sustainable development, the polluter-pays principle, the precautionary approach/principle, etc

Questions for discussion:

• What is the environment? Why do (or should) we care about it (or not)?
• What is the polluter-pays principle? How is it implemented?
• What does the concept of ‘sustainable development’ mean? Does this concept help foster a better protection of the environment?

Lecture: regulation (Chris Hilson)

• Presenting command-and-control (eg licensing) mechanisms as well as economic and other incentives (including taxes, subsidies, market-based mechanisms, education…)

Week 3

Seminar: regulation of environmental law

• Consideration of the costs and benefits of different regulatory strategies when applied to particular issues

Questions for discussion:

• Is an economic incentive always the best way to regulate pollution?
• How can noise pollution be regulated? Identify and discuss measures adopted in at least two different jurisdictions
• How can light pollution be regulated? Identify and discuss measures adopted in at least two different jurisdictions

Lecture: the protection of nature (David Bilchitz, online)

Week 4: mid-semester break

Week 5

Seminar: the protection of nature

• Anthropocentrism and ecocentrism in environmental law
• The Anthropocene and the project of an Earth System Law

Questions for discussion:

• What are anthropocentrism and ecocentrism? what various types of these theories exist, which theory best explains environmental law?
• What are the pros and cons of recognizing rights to nature or its components (such as rivers, species, or animals)?
• What is the Anthropocene? What unique issues does it create for environmental law? How does environmental law address these issues? What else could be done?
• What do scholars mean when they speak about ‘Earth System Governance’ or ‘Earth System Law’?

Lecture: international climate law (Benoit Mayer)

• Collective action problem
• Climate treaties and negotiation process
• Customary international law
• Incidental obligations (overview)

Week 6

Seminar: international climate law

• Discussion of the effectiveness of climate negotiations
• Discussion of the applicability and effectiveness of other norms of international law, in particular customary international law

Questions for discussion:

• How and why does the Paris Agreement differ from the Kyoto Protocol?
• In what sense(s) are nationally determined contributions (NDCs) voluntary? Do states have any legal obligations in relation to the adoption or implementation of their NDC?
• What is customary international law, and how does it apply to climate change?

Lecture: climate laws and policies (Benoit Mayer)

• Framework legislation
• Application of regulatory tools (technical standards and economic incentives)
• Examples of the policies and measures on climate change mitigation implemented in the EU and the UK

Week 7

Seminar: climate laws and policies

• Commonalities and differences in national laws and policies on climate change
• Discussion of climate change mitigation in specific economic sectors
• The adverse socio-economic impact of response measures

Questions for discussion:

• Choose one of the following jurisdictions: Australia, Canada, China, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, or the United States. Identify the main policies and measures that this jurisdiction have adopted to mitigate climate change. How do these measures differ from those adopted in the EU and the UK? How do you explain or justify these differences?
• How can states address the greenhouse gas emissions from aviation in light of the objective of global net zero emissions in the second half of the century?
• Concept of a just transition: where does it come from, what does it mean, how is it implemented?

Lecture: litigation on climate change adaptation (Chris Hilson)

• Discussion of several examples, eg Ashgar Leghari v Pakistan and Torres Strait islanders case
• Issues of attribution; evidentiary issues

Week 8

Seminar: litigation on climate change adaptation

• Issues of causal attribution
• Standing as victim in climate litigation

Questions for discussion:

• Who are ‘climate refugees’? Can an individual’s decision to migrate be attributed to climate change?

Lecture: litigation on climate change mitigation (Benoit Mayer)

• Concept of climate litigation; definitional issues
• Focus on litigation relating to the mitigation of climate change
• Overview of main cases

Week 9

Seminar: litigation on climate change mitigation

• Review of selected cases
• Reflection on legitimacy and effectiveness

Questions for discussion:

• Choose one of the following cases: Urgenda v the Netherlands (Supreme Court of the Netherlands, 2019); Milieudefensie v Royal Dutch Shell (Court of Appeal of the Hague, 2024); Klimaatzaak v Belgium (Court of Appeal, Belgium); Juliana v US (Court of Appeal, US). What did the court decide, and on what grounds? What issues did the decision raise / what criticisms did it attract?
• Did the case of Urgenda v the Netherlands help address climate change?

Lecture: climate justice and loss and damage (Vicky Kapogianni)

Week 10

Seminar: climate justice and loss and damage

• Critical engagement with the concept of ‘climate justice’
• Review of the politics underlying the emergence of the concept of loss and damage
• Discussion of the potential for court-imposed climate reparations

Questions for discussion:

• Who (if anyone) is morally responsible for climate change, why, and to what extent?
• Discuss the case of Liuya v RWE. What challenges are there to imposing on RWE an obligation to compensate Liuya?

Lecture: environmental impact assessment (Benoit Mayer)

• Emergence and diffusion of EIA frameworks, widespread application and recognition (including on the international plane)
• Contents: main stages
• Rationales
• Application to climate change

Week 11

Seminar: environmental impact assessment

• Competing explanations and rationales for EIA
• Application of EIA as a tool for climate change mitigation; issues on (1) assessment of significance, (2) assessment of indirect climate effects, and (3) public participation

Questions for discussion:

• Choose one of the following cases: Gloucester Resources Ltd v Minister for Planning (New South Wales Land and Environment Court 2019); Waratah Coal Pty Ltd v Youth Verdict (Queensland Land Court 2022); R (Finch) v County of Surrey (UKSC 2024). What did the court decide, and on what grounds? What issues did the decision raise / what criticisms did it attract?
• Document and discuss the intervention of Micronesia in a national debate in Czechia about the Prunéřov power plant
• What is the market substitution argument in the debate on the climate impact of fossil fuel projects? Does this argument justify the exclusion of greenhouse gas emissions from the scope of an EIA?

Lecture: human rights law (Benoit Mayer)

• Application of human rights law to environmental protection and to climate change adaptation and mitigation
• Public participation

Week 12

Seminar: human rights law

• Unique challenges to the application of human rights law as the source of an obligation on climate change mitigation

Questions for discussion:

• Choose one of the following cases: Neubauer v Germany (Federal Constitutional Court, 2021); Verein KlimaSeniorinnen v Switzerland (European Court of Human rights, 2024); Kim Yujin v. South Korea (Constitutional Court, 2024). What did the court decide, and on what grounds? What issues did the decision raise / what criticisms did it attract?
• Can climate impacts be characterized as human rights violations? If so, who is the