At the end of the course, students will be able to:
a. Define, understand and use the legal concepts and principles that shape environmental and sustainable development law;
b. Read, understand and comment on a court decision dealing with a legal issue covered in the course;
c. Understand the role played by international and European law in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and, in particular, in protecting the environment;
d. Explain the potential, qualities and shortcomings of legal instruments in protecting the environment and implementing sustainable development policies;
e. Understand the interweaving of legal disciplines (private law, public law, European and international law) and non-legal disciplines (economics, sociology, physics, etc.) in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
In addition to these disciplinary skills, students must also acquire a series of soft skills:
a. Communicating precise, nuanced and convincing legal reasoning orally;
b. Defending a point of view in an argumentative and rigorous manner in a complex field;
c. Feeding the teaching with personal contributions and reflections (orally, during the course and in the student work);
d. Demonstrating a critical approach to a legal rule, a legal solution, a political proposal or any other resource seen during the course;
e. Demonstrating autonomy and responsibility in the implementation of tools leading to success;
f. Reflecting on the environmental and social impact of his/her actions;
g. Evaluating its standards, practices and values in the light of the Sustainable Development Goals.
h. Learning to work and think in groups.
The extreme events that are hitting the planet more and more frequently, whether they be pandemics, floods, fires or heatwaves, show to what extent the course of "Environmental Law", if it is traditionally a course to choose from, plays a central role in the training of current and future students, whether they are lawyers or not.
The course aims to analyze and make understand, to the jurist as to the non-jurist, how the law - especially of the environment - reacts and can contribute to protect the environment with the help of the principles and techniques which are proper to it.
The course also aims to show how environmental law, and law in general, is evolving to make room for a new paradigm: sustainable development first of all, and the ecological transition next.
The place of law, its postulates and its content are also questioned in a critical approach with regard to new founding frameworks, such as that of the rights of Nature, the principle of habitability or the economy of the donut.
More broadly, the course aims to raise students' awareness of the importance of environmental and sustainable development issues that arise for us and to equip them with the tools they need to become citizens. Are committed and responsible stakeholders in society. As such, the course contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (UN, Sustainable Development Agenda 2030).
After identifying the sources of environmental law, the course highlights the main principles that structure the subject (precautionary principle, polluter pays principle, integration principle, etc.), while emphasising two new fundamental trends: the construction of environmental democracy and the emergence of the concept of sustainable development in law. Close attention is paid to digital technology and its positive and negative impacts on the environment. Finally, the course addresses how the legal framework relating to human rights can contribute to environmental protection. It is confronted with a growing movement, sign of a new look on the living world around us: the rights of Nature.
Cfr Content
There are no practical exercises/monitoring for this course.
The course combines lectures and discussions based on resources that are often reviewed in advance. The course's WebCampus page is regularly updated and used as the main source of information.
The course aims to illustrate the scope of the concepts and principles presented through topical examples and collaboration with experts, and encourages the active participation of students with a view to co-creating knowledge. Ultimately, it is the students themselves who are the primary guarantors of their success.
The teaching method used is original: inspired by Ignatian pedagogy and its ‘experience-reflection-action’ paradigm, it is based on transformative education tools and the ‘head-heart-hands’ approach.
Lectures can be supplemented with outdoor sessions (park, Sambre, citadelle, etc.).
The assessment takes the form of a written assignment, theoretical and exploratory, to be completed in groups on a current legal issue in collaboration with Canopéa, the federation of Belgian environmental associations.
The use of AIg must be done in an ethical, thoughtful, responsible, and transparent manner in order to be a complement to the reflection delivered within the work and not a substitute. Any contribution generated by an IAg tool must be referenced in accordance with the current bibliographic standards.
Where applicable, students' participation in certain activities offered during the term may be taken into account in the final assessment.
For further information, please consult the course's WebCampus page.
| Training | Study programme | Block | Credits | Mandatory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Master in Management | Finalité didactique | 1 | 5 | Yes |
| Master in Management | Finalité spécialisée | 1 | 5 | Yes |
| Master in Management | Standard | 1 | 5 | Yes |
| Master in Management | Finalité didactique | 2 | 5 | Yes |
| Bachelor in Philosophy | Standard | 2 | 5 | No |
| Master in Management | Finalité spécialisée | 2 | 5 | Yes |
| Bachelor in Law | Standard | 2 | 4 | No |
| Bachelor in Law | Erasmus Belgica UHasselt | 2 | 4 | No |
| Bachelor in Philosophy | Standard | 3 | 5 | No |
| Bachelor in Law | Standard | 3 | 4 | No |