Module overview
The module explores the concept of environmental justice and looks at the role of law in both aggravating and addressing environmental injustices. In an age of climate and biodiversity crises, the idea of environmental justice is at the heart of many of the most contentious and urgent debates in environmental law, at both the domestic and international level. In this module, students will have the opportunity to discuss and research a wide range of environmental law themes and issues (including access to clean water, mining and extraction, climate change, biodiversity and extinctions, plastic and pollution, animal rights, fisheries and the ocean, among others) and gain an understanding of the social, economic, political and environmental justice dimensions of each of these themes. In each class, students will learn about and discuss important case studies and case law, and in this way gain an expansive understanding of how law responds to (and creates) environmental problems, and how those affected by environmental injustice use the law to resist environmental harm.