Environmental Rights (LAWS70386)

With policy and law-makers under pressure to subordinate environmental concerns to short-term economic imperatives, environmental advocates are increasingly looking to human rights as a means of reinforcing the importance of environmental protection to human welfare. This subject will give students an overview of the relationship between human rights law and environmental protection at national and international levels. It will provide insight into strategic aspects of human rights advocacy for the environment, using case studies to explore the roles of state and non-state actors in environmental protection. Alice Palmer will bring both practical and critical perspectives to this cutting-edge area of law.

Principal topics include:

• The relationship between human rights and the environment in theory and practice
• Human rights that protect the environment, including substantive rights such as the rights to privacy or health and procedural rights such as the rights to information or participation and the right to a clean and healthy environment
• Sustainable development and its relevance to human rights and the environment
• The implications of human rights law for indigenous peoples and environmental protection
• National, regional and international governance of human rights in relation to the environment
• The roles and responsibilities of non-state actors in relation to ‘environmental rights’, including environmental advocates and businesses.