Environmental Rights & Responsibilities (LAWS20009)

Undergraduate level 2Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)

You’re viewing the 2020 Handbook:
Or view archived Handbooks
You’re currently viewing the 2020 version of this subject
As part of the University’s response to COVID-19 and the associated Government restrictions and guidelines, most subjects will continue to be delivered online in Winter and Semester 2.
For information about the University’s phased return to campus and in-person activity in Winter and Semester 2, please refer to the on-campus subjects page.

Please refer to the LMS for up-to-date subject information, including assessment and participation requirements, for subjects being offered in 2020.

Overview

Availability
Semester 1
FeesLook up fees

This subject offers a legal approach to the environment and environmental and scientific knowledge. It provides an overview of the law that affects and regulates the environment, human relationships with the environment and the conduct of environmental agencies and environmental professionals. It explores this broad topic through a frame of "rights and responsibilities". The subject will bring together a number of sub-disciplines within the law, each with their own concepts of rights and responsibilities and different approaches to the environment. They may include environmental torts, international environmental law, environmental crime, conservation laws, human rights law, property law and environmental and planning law.

The subject will commence with a discussion of the making of environmental law, and develop a framework of rights and responsibilities of humans, species and "nature". The remainder of the subject will focus on a survey of legal topics and topical legal case studies drawn from Australia and overseas. Principal topics will change from year-to-year, though may include:

  • The extent of, and limits on, private property rights in the law and their role in land and environmental management;
  • Native title and Indigenous heritage and land rights and responsibilities and the implications for conservation and development (including mining);
  • International environmental rights and responsibilities, possibly in the context of world heritage protection, transnational environmental assessment and pollution, whaling or climate change;
  • The legalisation of the right to, and responsibility of, sustainable development;
  • The rise of human rights to environmental protection and their future extent within environmental law;
  • The notion of environmental rights and the enforcement of laws to protect non-human species and ecosystems; and
  • Responsibilities of individuals, agencies and organisations for pollution and contamination, and duties not to cause environmental harm.

Intended learning outcomes

The aims of this subject are to:



  • Introduce students to notions of rights within law, foundation legal principles and legal systems that regulate human relationships with land and the environment, and that seek to protect the environment or enable economic development;
  • Examine the legal responsibilities of nations, governments and humans to protect the environment from harm and conserve aspects of the environment;
  • Explore ideas about the legal rights of “nature” and the legal rights of humans to environmental protection, and critically evaluate the legal tools to achieve the protection of such rights;
  • Understand the responsibility of organisations, professionals and agencies to prevent pollution and restore environmental damage; and
  • Critique the environmental legal system through case study perspectives, and explore opportunities to reform the law so that it might better achieve its objectives.

Generic skills

A student who satisfactorily completes this subject will have:

  • Acquired knowledge of legal principles and regulatory systems relating to the environment and human use and modification of the environment;
  • Been introduced to the dominant notions of rights and responsibilities within a legal system, and acquired knowledge about how these notions link legal systems – especially international and domestic legal systems;
  • Used creative thinking and critical analysis skills to independently reflect, synthesise and extend acquired knowledge so to demonstrate understanding of the legal rights and responsibilities of various human and non-human components of the environment;
  • Planned a presentation directed at solving a perceived limitation in environmental law, and used research and analytical and persuasive communication skills to justify an independently formed viewpoint about environmental law; and
  • Demonstrated oral and written communication skills in presenting knowledge and ideas about how the law could improve its social and environmental objectives.

Last updated: 9 April 2025

Eligibility and requirements

Prerequisites

None

Corequisites

None

Non-allowed subjects

None

Recommended background knowledge

Completion of at least 100 points of undergraduate study.

Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)

The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.

Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home

Last updated: 9 April 2025

Assessment

Due to the impact of COVID-19, assessment may differ from that published in the Handbook. Students are reminded to check the subject assessment requirements published in the subject outline on the LMS

DescriptionTimingPercentage

Reflective journal of 2000 words maximum

  • 2000 words
40%

Tutorial attendance, participation, and oral presentation

Throughout the teaching period10%

Closed book examination comprising multiple choice questions and one long essay question

  • 2 hours
50%

Additional details

The due dates of the above assessment will be available to students via the LMS subject page.

Last updated: 9 April 2025

Dates & times

  • Semester 1
    Principal coordinatorBrad Jessup
    Mode of deliveryOn Campus (Parkville)
    Contact hours36 hours (one 2-hour lecture per week and one 2-hour tutorial per fortnight)
    Total time commitment136 hours
    Teaching period 2 March 2020 to 7 June 2020
    Last self-enrol date13 March 2020
    Census date30 April 2020
    Last date to withdraw without fail 5 June 2020
    Assessment period ends 3 July 2020

    Semester 1 contact information

    Contact Stop 1

Time commitment details

136 hours

Last updated: 9 April 2025

Further information

Last updated: 9 April 2025