76024 Environmental Law

As a field of study, environmental law deals with the rules, relationships, systems and processes by which environmental protection is achieved. This subject grounds students in an introduction to the foundations of environmental law at the international, federal, state and local government levels. It introduces students to the nature and conceptual notions of environmental law with a view to enabling them to undertake more specialised courses in environmental law, either at the undergraduate or postgraduate level, such as Water Law and Policy, International Environmental Law and International Trade Law and the Environment.

Topics covered in the subject include:

• the philosophy of environmental law
• international environmental law and domestic implementation of multinational environmental agreements
• constitutional support for environmental actions
• legislative framework at the federal, state and local government levels
• principles of ESD and courts interpretation of these principles
• the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 2000 (Cwth)
• NSW pollution legislation, the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997
• system of regulation and management of natural resources in NSW
• case studies of current environmental issues
• environmental institutions and resolution of environmental disputes.