James Cook University Subject Handbook - 2024

LA5902 - Environmental Law and Policy

This subject does not constitute a law elective. Students enrolled in law and joint law degrees should only take this subject as a non-law elective.

Subject Description

The subject introduces students to the fundamentals of the study of law and of the nature of international, national and state environmental law. The subject then examines the application of environmental law in Australia as an instrument for enforcing environmental regulation, promoting ecologically sustainable development, resource management and planning, heritage governance and environmental conservation and protection.

Learning Outcomes

• to enable students to develop an understanding of the architecture of environmental law systems and of the nature and form of norms and principles of international, Australian federal and selected state environmental laws and policies
• to provide students with a basic introduction to legal source materials, modes of legal reasoning, legal terminology and concepts and categories of law
• to enable students to analyse and critique environmental law and policy in the context of the contemporary global and local environmental outlook
• to enable students to critique the adequacy of current law and policy and to make recommendations on how the law should evolve
• to enable students to reflect critically on how and why the principles of environmental law and policy have evolved

Subject Assessment

• Written > Examination (centrally administered) - (40%) - Individual
• Written > Test/Quiz 1 - (10%) - Individual
• Written > Essay (including multi-draft) 1 - (50%) - Individual

Note that minor variations might occur due to the continuous subject quality improvement process, and in case of minor variation(s) in assessment details, the Subject Outline represents the latest official information.

Inadmissible Subject Combinations:  EV2002 and EV3206 and EV5201 and LA2902

Availabilities