Teacher(s)
Language
English
Prerequisites
LBIR2050: MOOC on the Challenges of Sustainable Development
Main themes
The aim is to introduce students to the legal aspects of the challenges of sustainable development and transition, in their ecological, economic and social justice dimensions. The aim is to enable students to learn about the role of law in global change and the need to create the conditions for the long-term satisfaction of the needs of current and future generations.
With this in mind, the course aims to offer a critical and decompartmentalised approach to the law, to provide an overview of its role in anchoring the man-nature duality, in the emergence of the concept of sustainable development and in the understanding at international and domestic level of the major themes of transition (energy-climate, food-agriculture, the fight against poverty and inequality, resources, mobility, territories and cities, etc.). The link with fundamental rights and the concepts of environmental and climate justice is also presented. The aim is not to go into detail on these themes, but to show how they are interconnected and to offer a 360° overview from a global and critical perspective.
The course is a direct extension of the MOOC on the Challenges of Sustainable Development offered at UCLouvain, which provides the non-legal foundations of the issue. The proposed course is complementary to several specialised courses on related themes, given as an option or as part of the in-depth minor (general environmental law, town planning law, law and gender, financial market regulations, law and migration, international protection of human rights, law of representative and participatory democracy, etc.) as well as cross-disciplinary courses including the Law of Public Policy course and the Law, Change and Society course, which offers a theoretical and thematic complement on the role of law in society.
Through these developments, the course invites students to take a critical look at the role of the law in the current ecological crisis and in the solutions being found to it, and to understand the importance of an inter- and trans-disciplinary approach to the challenges of sustainable development.
With this in mind, the course aims to offer a critical and decompartmentalised approach to the law, to provide an overview of its role in anchoring the man-nature duality, in the emergence of the concept of sustainable development and in the understanding at international and domestic level of the major themes of transition (energy-climate, food-agriculture, the fight against poverty and inequality, resources, mobility, territories and cities, etc.). The link with fundamental rights and the concepts of environmental and climate justice is also presented. The aim is not to go into detail on these themes, but to show how they are interconnected and to offer a 360° overview from a global and critical perspective.
The course is a direct extension of the MOOC on the Challenges of Sustainable Development offered at UCLouvain, which provides the non-legal foundations of the issue. The proposed course is complementary to several specialised courses on related themes, given as an option or as part of the in-depth minor (general environmental law, town planning law, law and gender, financial market regulations, law and migration, international protection of human rights, law of representative and participatory democracy, etc.) as well as cross-disciplinary courses including the Law of Public Policy course and the Law, Change and Society course, which offers a theoretical and thematic complement on the role of law in society.
Through these developments, the course invites students to take a critical look at the role of the law in the current ecological crisis and in the solutions being found to it, and to understand the importance of an inter- and trans-disciplinary approach to the challenges of sustainable development.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to : | |
Understand the legal underpinnings of the current ecological crisis, in its environmental, economic and social dimensions;
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Content
The course provides students with content and tools that enable them to take a global and integrated approach to the subject.
It aims to address the following themes
It aims to address the following themes
- Anchoring the human-nature duality in law
- Notions of sustainable development and transition in law
- Human rights, rights of nature and sustainability
- Institutions, governance and sustainability
- Cross-cutting themes
- Introduction to the sectoral themes of sustainability:
- Environment: energy, agriculture and food, urban planning, etc.
- Social: the fight against poverty, environmental and climate justice
- Economic: CSR, duty of care, carbon taxation, etc.
Teaching methods
The course is structured in modules (two or four hours long) relating to an aspect of sustainable development and transition (corresponding as far as possible to the modules of the MOOC LBIRE2050). Each session consists of a presentation by the course teacher and/or a guest speaker on the content of the module, followed, if time allows it, by a discussion at the end of the module to encourage reflection. The speakers are either academic experts or stakeholders in the issue concerned.
In order to ensure the active participation of students, before each session (or module), a few short readings (legal or otherwise) are required in preparation for the session, on the issues covered by the module and/or their legal implications. At the beginning of the session, a Moodle test (multiple-choice questions) is organised to check that students have read the documents; the result is included in the continuous assessment (see below).
The course is taught in English, except when the law studied is strictly Belgian law.
When a student is absent for legitimate and justified reasons, a make-up assessment is organised.
In order to ensure the active participation of students, before each session (or module), a few short readings (legal or otherwise) are required in preparation for the session, on the issues covered by the module and/or their legal implications. At the beginning of the session, a Moodle test (multiple-choice questions) is organised to check that students have read the documents; the result is included in the continuous assessment (see below).
The course is taught in English, except when the law studied is strictly Belgian law.
When a student is absent for legitimate and justified reasons, a make-up assessment is organised.
Evaluation methods
Assessment is continuous, outside of class, and consists of two parts:
- individual assessment in the form of written tests (multiple choice or other) at the beginning and either at the end of the module or during the session following the end of each module. This part of the assessment accounts for half of the marks;
- group assessment at the end of the term (mid-december), involving, during the term period, a field visit, a short video presentation of the field and the writing of a legal paper related to the field, to be submitted in S13 or S14. The precise methods and assessment criteria will be given in the course outline. This part of the work accounts for half of the marks.
Faculty or entity
