Environmental Law and Policy (LAWS90116)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5Not available in 2025
About this subject
Overview
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This subject introduces students to the specialised field of environmental law, focusing on some of the key legal and policy issues concerning the regulation of environmental quality. It develops and integrates legal knowledge from a range of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary fields (e.g., administrative law and torts law; public policy and economic theory), augmenting this through study of specific environmental legislation and case law to build an understanding of the complex interactions that define environmental law. Topics addressed will include the theoretical foundations, political dimensions, and modes of environmental regulation, the structures of environmental governance and the interpretation of environmental statutes. Case studies considered will provide students with an understanding of the complexities of environmental regulation and liability, such as the regulation of air quality (including greenhouse gases), contaminated sites and hazardous substances.
Principal topics include:
- Theoretical foundations of environmental law, including economic and non-economic perspectives on environmental degradation
- Scientific predicate for environmental regulation: Risk assessment
- Objectives of environmental regulation: Risk management
- Distributional consequences of environmental policy
- Choice of regulatory tools: Command-and-control regulation, marketable permit schemes and effluent fees
- Choice of regulatory tools: Deposit-refund systems, liability rules, informational approaches
- Federalism and environmental regulation
- Environmental law and public choice
- Key case studies that illustrate the complexities of environmental law and liability, including the regulation of air quality, contaminated sites and hazardous substances, with particular focus on the US Clean Air Act and the US Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Although the focus of the course is not on Australian Environmental Law, parallels will be drawn through the assigned readings.
Intended learning outcomes
A student who has successfully completed this subject will have the following skills.
A student who has successfully completed this subject will be able to:
- Critically analyse choices among environmental policies
- Exhibit a sophisticated understanding of the political and institutional backdrop to the design of environmental regulatory programs
- Demonstrate a facility at interpreting complex environmental statutory schemes
- Understand and critically evaluate the major strands of the academic literature.
A student who has successfully completed this subject should have an advanced and integrated understanding of, and be able to critically analyse, reflect on and synthesise complex information, problems, concepts, and theories in relation to, the following issues:
- Economic and non-economic perspectives on environmental degradation and regulation
- The scientific predicate (risk assessment) and objectives (risk management) of environmental regulation
- The distributional consequences of environmental policy
- The choice of environmental regulatory tools, including command-and-control regulation, marketable permit schemes, effluent fees, deposit-refund systems, liability rules, informational approaches
- Federalism and environmental regulation
- Key case studies that illustrate the complexities of environmental law and liability, including the regulation of air quality and hazardous substances.
Generic skills
- Mastery of theoretical knowledge and demonstrated ability to critically reflect on theory and professional practice on issues of environmental law and policy
- Cognitive, technical, and creative skills to investigate, analyse and synthesise complex information, problems, concepts, and theories and to apply established theories to different areas of environmental policy and regulation
- Communication and analytical skills to justify and interpret theoretical propositions, methodologies, conclusions and professional decisions to specialist and non-specialist audiences
- Technical and communication skills to design, evaluate, implement, analyse, and theorise about developments that contribute to environmental professional practice or legal scholarship
- Attitudes towards legal knowledge that include openness to new ideas and awareness of location and politics in its creation and use
- An applied understanding of diverse theoretical and domestic legal materials
- An awareness of the value of collaborative learning and participation in a seminar style teaching environment
- An expanded capacity for self-directed legal research involving interdisciplinary materials and high-level personal autonomy and accountability with respect to time management.
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
Admission into a relevant Melbourne Law Masters program
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
LAWS70466 US Environmental Law and Policy
Recommended background knowledge
Applicants without legal qualifications should note that subjects are offered in the discipline of law at an advanced graduate level. While every effort will be made to meet the needs of students trained in other fields, concessions will not be made in the general level of instruction or assessment. Most subjects assume the knowledge usually acquired in a degree in law (LLB, JD or equivalent). Applicants should note that admission to some subjects in the Melbourne Law Masters will be dependent upon the individual applicant’s educational background and professional experience.
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: 4 March 2025
Assessment
| Description | Timing | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
Take-home examination
| 15 - 18 December 2023 | 100% |
| Hurdle requirement: A minimum of 75% attendance is required. | Throughout the teaching period | N/A |
Additional details
This subject has a United States-focus, although the assigned readings will enable students to draw comparisons and apply their learnings from the course to the Australian context.
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Quotas apply to this subject
Dates & times
Not available in 2025
What do these dates mean
Visit this webpage to find out about these key dates, including how they impact on:
- Your tuition fees, academic transcript and statements.
- And for Commonwealth Supported students, your:
- Student Learning Entitlement. This applies to all students enrolled in a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP).
Subjects withdrawn after the census date (including up to the ‘last day to withdraw without fail’) count toward the Student Learning Entitlement.
Additional delivery details
This subject has a quota of 30 students.
Enrolment is on a 'first in' basis. Waitlists are maintained for subjects that are fully subscribed.
Students should note priority of waitlisted places in subjects will be given as follows:
- To currently enrolled Graduate Diploma and Masters students with a satisfactory record in their degree
- To other students enrolling on a single subject basis, eg Community Access Program (CAP) students, cross-institutional study and cross-faculty study.
Please refer to the Melbourne Law Masters website for further information about the management of subject quotas and waitlists.
Melbourne Law School may reserve places in a subject for incoming international cohorts or where a subject is core to a specialisation with limited alternate options.
Last updated: 4 March 2025
Further information
- Texts
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Course Graduate Diploma in Environment Course Master of Environmental Law Course Master of Laws Course Graduate Diploma in Laws - Links to additional information
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Please note Single Subject Studies via Community Access Program is not available to student visa holders or applicants
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
Additional information for this subject
If subject coordinator approval is required prior to enrolment, or for further information about the pre-requisites for Community Access Program study, please contact us:
- prospective CAP student enquiries;
- existing CAP student enquiries (if you have a current Unimelb login).
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
Last updated: 4 March 2025