Postgraduate Course: New Perspectives on International Law and the Environment (LAWS11535)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | International law and governance mechanisms have not managed to avert the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. This course will introduce students to diverse alternative perspectives that have been proposed to remedy some of these systemic failings, and critically reflect on their potential and limitations. |
| Course description |
This course introduces students to a range of alternative perspectives on international law and the environment. It starts by exploring the preliminary question of how international law and governance have shaped and continue to shape human-nature relationships. Students will be introduced to a variety of alternative perspectives and proposals, such as critical approaches to sustainable development, indigenous perspectives, rights of nature, forms of commons and ¿commoning¿, ecological law, green criminology and Earth Systems Governance. Through critically evaluating the potential and limitations of these alternatives, students will learn to develop their own informed and creative approaches to thinking about contemporary socio-ecological challenges, drawing on legal arguments, legal theory, and interdisciplinary insights.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 25 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
1. small-group project (35%) «br /»
2. individual written reflection on the group project of no more than 800 words OR a 3-minute podcast (15%) «br /»
3. essay of no more than 3500 words (50%) «br /»
«br /»
Details: «br /»
1. In small groups students are asked to prepare a contribution in a non-conventional format. The task is for students to think creatively about alternative perspectives on an environmental challenge of their choice (local or global), and present their perspective/proposal in a way that engages their audience in an innovative way. This assessment component is co-designed by the students and they are thus free to choose their own delivery format. The CO will provide students with examples for inspiration (e.g. the use of digital media, story-telling, spoken word, performance, visual arts, organizing a debate, or critiquing a piece of writing in a ¿book club¿ setting). Groups can ask for feedback from the CO as they develop their idea (see formative assessment below). The group project will be jointly assessed by both teachers on the course on (i) substance, (ii) creativity/innovation and (iii) delivery. Project presentations will take place in the last week of the course during an extended seminar that will take the format of a small ¿festival¿ where other students and staff are invited to pop in and participate. This assessment component is a form of authentic assessment (see further below point 35), which is co-designed by students and in which students participate in generative ways. This aligns with the learning goals and Graduate Attributes of creative thinking, intellectual autonomy and agency (see above).«br /»
«br /»
2. The individual reflection will be due one week after the group presentation. Students will be provided with a small set of guiding questions to reflect on, relating to: their learning and research process and how this developed their thinking, their experience with co-developing the group¿s idea and delivery format, key take-aways from the learning experience. The reflection will be assessed on personal (i.e. individual, unique to the student) engagement with each of the guiding questions. This assessment component aligns with the reflexive learning goals and Graduate Attributes (see above). «br /»
«br /»
3. The essay will consist of a choice of essay questions set by the teaching team, covering different topics taught in the course. This essay will be due by the January submission deadline. This assessment component aligns with the substantive and individual research, analytical and writing skills as set out in the learning goals and Graduate Attributes above. |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback:
Students will have the opportunity to ask for verbal feedback as they develop their plan for the group project up until the end of week 8.
Summative feedback:
Students will receive individual written feedback via Learn on their summative essay and individual reflection. Groups will receive written feedback on their presentation. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of how human-nature relationships are shaped by international law and governance, including through the various iterations of the Sustainable Development agenda.
- Critically engage with diverse perspectives on the role of international law as both complicit in and as a potential part of the solution to the triple planetary crisis.
- Understand and analyse the complex intersections of environmental and social justice, including through de-colonial and non-western perspectives on international law and the environment.
- Understand and analyse theoretical and interdisciplinary arguments and link these to practical legal implications and proposals for law reform.
- Develop their own critical reflection and creative thinking on key socio-ecological challenges through individual research and writing and through collaborative group work.
|
Reading List
Books
U Natarajan and J Dehm (eds), Locating Nature: Making and Unmaking International Law (Cambridge University Press 2022)
G Garver (ed.), Ecological Law in Practice Case Studies for a Transformative Approach (Routledge, 2024)
D French and L Kotzé (eds), Research handbook on law, governance and planetary boundaries (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021)
Articles
I Feichtner and S Ranganathan, ¿International Law and Economic Exploitation in the Global Commons: Introduction¿ (2019) 30 European Journal of International Law 541
C Blanco Vizarreta, ¿Rethinking International Law along with Amazonian Ontologies: Problematizing Human-Non-Human Divisions¿ (2024) 37 Leiden Journal of International Law 847
S Maechler and V Boisvert, ¿Valuing Nature to Save It? The Centrality of Valuation in the New Spirit of Conservation¿ (2024) 24 Global Environmental Politics 10
A Branch and L Minkova, ¿Ecocide, the Anthropocene, and the International Criminal Court¿ (2023) 37.1 Ethics & International Affairs 51
A Akhtar-Khavari, Afshin, M Lim and K Woolaston, ¿Environmental law¿s extinction problem¿ (2020) 29:4 Griffith Law Review 493
Chapters
KP Whyte, ¿Time as Kinship¿ in J Cohen and S Foote (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Environmental Humanities (Cambridge University Press 2021)
J Gilbert and others, ¿The Rights of Nature as a Legal Response to the Global Environmental Crisis? A Critical Review of International Law¿s ¿Greening¿ Agenda¿ in D Dam-de Jong and F Amtenbrink (eds), Netherlands Yearbook of International Law 2021 (TMC Asser Press 2023);
K Birrell and J Dehm, ¿International Law and the Humanities in the Anthropocene¿ in S Chalmers and S Pahuja (eds), Routledge Handbook of International Law and the Humanities (Routledge 2021). |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research and enquiry skills: students will learn to critically engage with diverse alternative perspectives on the role of international law in relation to the triple planetary crisis. They will learn to enquire into the assumptions underpinning dominant legal structures and forms of argument.
Personal and intellectual autonomy skills: students will be able to develop their own critical reflection and creative thinking on key socio-ecological challenges within a safe learning environment. Through in-class debates, collaboration in small groups and authentic assessment, students have the opportunity develop a sense of individual and collective agency.
Personal effectiveness skills: students will learn to formulate and motivate their ideas effectively, and to constructively and meaningfully engage with those of others. Through collaboration in small groups, students will develop relational and reflexive ways of learning and co-developing ideas.
Communication skills: students will develop their oral and written argumentation and communication skills. |
| Keywords | international law,global environmental governance,environmental humanities,sustainability |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Rozemarijn Roland Holst
Tel:
Email: r.rolandholst@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Susanna Wickes
Tel:
Email: Susanna.Wickes@ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage