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Projects and the Environment Practicum (LAWS90241)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
About this subject
Contact information
November
For more information
Melbourne Law School Clinics
Email: law-wil@unimelb.edu.au
Overview
Availability(Quotas apply) | November |
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Fees | Look up fees |
From 2026, this subject's title will change to Environment and the Law Lab
This subject gives students a practice-focused opportunity to explore how the law influences the environmental and related social issues associated with infrastructure projects, from finance to operation.
Students will encounter and analyse these issues across multiple areas of law, including contract law, environmental law, property law, and administrative law. Students will gain familiarity with the roles and perspectives of the diverse multidisciplinary actors with whom lawyers work when developing (or challenging) a major project, including community groups, consultants, scientists, and regulators. Topics will be taught using real-life central case studies to explore relevant issues, and students will interact with real-life stakeholders in infrastructure projects, partnering with selected stakeholders to provide meaningful legal analysis that assists them in their work.
Students will develop their communication skills, particularly oral communication and using plain English approaches to explain complex laws to non-legal stakeholders; gain expertise in reading and interpreting legislation; reading technical documents like environmental impact statements; and teamwork.
Indicative list of principal topics:
- sustainable finance,
- land use planning,
- impact assessment,
- environmental licensing, and
- judicial review of project approvals.
Important information about enrolling
This subject is not available for self-enrolment but is an application-based enrichment subject, which means prospective students must apply to enrol. Many of these application-based enrichment subjects also involve a selection process.
More information about the application process can be found on the Application-based enrichment subjects information page inside the Juris Doctor LMS Community [Juris Doctor student access only].
Intended learning outcomes
A student who has successfully completed this subject will have:
- Evaluate the legal frameworks governing social and environmental impacts across the lifecycle of major projects
- Navigate the multidisciplinary context in which lawyers work in the context of major projects and their impacts, and articulate the perspectives of the diverse parties involved
- Examine, interpret and critically analyse law-related materials involved in major projects, such as environmental impact statements and environmental disclosures – relevant to major project planning, approval and ongoing operational processes
- Reflect meaningfully and critically on the role and effectiveness of environment-related laws; and assess the legal and non-legal skills lawyers require to drive environmentally beneficial outcomes including the practical constraints they encounter
- Synthesise and communicate legal ideas effectively to non-legal stakeholders, analyse information, concepts and theories relating to environmental and social issues and the critical application of this knowledge to a specific case study
Generic skills
On completion of the subject students should have developed and demonstrated their cognitive, technical and professional-legal skills in relation to:
- High-level statutory reading, interpretation and analysis
- An ability to investigate and evaluate how key concepts and legal mechanisms for environmental protection manifest in specific real-life projects
- Analysis and critical reflection on desirable regulatory reforms highlighted by specific real-life projects, in a manner displaying awareness of diverse perspectives among stakeholders and regulatory actors
- An expanded capacity for legal research involving interdisciplinary materials, including materials regularly encountered by lawyers in practice
- The capacity to communicate complex legal concepts clearly and persuasively to non-legal audiences, using both oral and written formats and plain English
- Collaborative and time management skills, including the ability to work effectively in teams and to plan and deliver work to deadline
Last updated: 11 July 2025