Students

LAWS8055 – Environmental Law and Sustainable Development

2025 – Session 1, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Convenor; Lecturer; Tutor
Paul Govind
Contact via iLearn
Michael Kirby Building, Room 338
By appointment
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
Admission to LLM or MSusDev or M Env or MLCHRS or (Admission to JD and LAWS600 or LAWS8001)
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

This unit introduces students to the specialised and burgeoning area of environmental law on both the national and international stage. It evaluates the effectiveness of current environmental law in the context of ongoing and emerging challenges. The unit adopts a multidisciplinary perspective to help augment understanding of the complexity of environmental challenges and enhance the analysis of relevant legislation and case law. 

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Acknowledge and embed First Nations culture, philosophy and law/lore into the design and implementation of environmental law and sustainable development.
  • ULO2: Identify the major environmental challenges from the global to local level and analyse whether law is effective in producing sustainable futures.
  • ULO3: Examine key multidisciplinary perspectives on the environment that influence how environmental harm is interpreted and applied under law.
  • ULO4: Examine key multidisciplinary perspectives on the environment that influence how environmental harm is interpreted and applied under law.
  • ULO5: Analyse the interaction of environmental law at international, domestic, and transnational levels and how this influences the evolution of environmental law and sustainability.
  • ULO6: Critically analyse and evaluate how sustainability is mainstreamed across different discrete legal systems and how this might regulate current and future sustainability challenges.

General Assessment Information

All written assessments submitted electronically must be submitted through the link provided in iLearn. This unit will utilise Turnitin plagiarism detection software. Students should carefully check that they submit the correct file for an assessment, as re-submissions will not be accepted after the due date and time, including instances where students upload an incorrect file in error.

The design, moderation and feedback of all assessments is in accordance with the Macquarie University Assessment Procedure (link provided under ‘Policies and Procedures’ below).

Late Submission Policy

A maximum penalty of five (5) percentage points of the total possible marks will be applied per day to late submissions, for up to a maximum of seven calendar days. Tasks that have not been submitted within the maximum number of additional late days will receive a mark of zero. This provision does not apply to online exams or other assessment with a time limit of less than 24 hours.

Penalties for late submission will be applied consistently and equitably to all students enrolled in the unit. Where short-term, serious and unavoidable circumstances have affected their ability to submit an assessment task, a student must submit a formal application for Special Consideration as per the Special Consideration Policy. Students should not request an informal arrangement from their tutor, lecturer or Unit Convenor.

Where an application for Special Consideration is approved, and the outcome is an extension to the due date of a task, submissions that are received after the new due date will be subject to late penalties that are calculated from the new due date. This only applies where the outcome is an extension to the due date – see the Special Consideration Policy for a schedule of all possible outcomes.

Special Consideration

Students should submit applications for Special Consideration electronically via the Service Connect portal, along with the supporting documentation. Before submitting their applications, students should refer to the Special Consideration Policy (link provided under ‘Policies and Procedures’ below).

 

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Professional Skills 20% No Ongoing
Analytical Research Essay 40% No 08/04/2025
Take home assessment 40% No 06/06/2025

Professional Skills

Assessment Type 1: Practice-based task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 0 hours
Due: Ongoing
Weighting: 20%

 

Students will develop essential legal professional skills through structured classroom activities such as oral advocacy, critical reasoning, strategic problem-solving, collaborative work, team leadership, mooting, simulated client consultations, legal presentations or demonstrations, doctrinal analysis and problem solving, and/or collaborative legal research. These activities are designed to develop students’ professional capabilities including capacity to communicate legal concepts clearly and engage professionally with diverse audiences in diverse contexts.

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Acknowledge and embed First Nations culture, philosophy and law/lore into the design and implementation of environmental law and sustainable development.
  • Identify the major environmental challenges from the global to local level and analyse whether law is effective in producing sustainable futures.
  • Examine key multidisciplinary perspectives on the environment that influence how environmental harm is interpreted and applied under law.
  • Critically analyse and evaluate how sustainability is mainstreamed across different discrete legal systems and how this might regulate current and future sustainability challenges.

Analytical Research Essay

Assessment Type 1: Essay
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: 08/04/2025
Weighting: 40%

 

Students will prepare a research essay that analyses a topic of environmental law.

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Identify the major environmental challenges from the global to local level and analyse whether law is effective in producing sustainable futures.
  • Examine key multidisciplinary perspectives on the environment that influence how environmental harm is interpreted and applied under law.
  • Examine key multidisciplinary perspectives on the environment that influence how environmental harm is interpreted and applied under law.
  • Analyse the interaction of environmental law at international, domestic, and transnational levels and how this influences the evolution of environmental law and sustainability.

Take home assessment

Assessment Type 1: Quiz/Test
Indicative Time on Task 2: 10 hours
Due: 06/06/2025
Weighting: 40%

 

Students will submit responses to questions based on a hypothetical scenario

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Examine key multidisciplinary perspectives on the environment that influence how environmental harm is interpreted and applied under law.
  • Analyse the interaction of environmental law at international, domestic, and transnational levels and how this influences the evolution of environmental law and sustainability.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

This unit is committed to the decolonisation of the learning and teaching of law. This is demonstrated and implemented through the selection of topics, inclusion of research by First Nation scholars in the reading list and First Nation methodological and pedagogical practices such as deep listening through the sharing of expertise and guidance of First Nation’s scholars and colleagues.

Delivery

Lectures: Lectures are weekly and are pre-recorded and uploaded via ECHO 360 to the iLearn page.

Tutorials: Tutorials are weekly for in person classes and fortnightly for online classes. Tutorials for in person classes commence in Week 1. For online classes, please check the timetable for the date of the first class.

This unit is worth 10 credit points, which equates to 150 hours of work. Therefore, students should expect to commit an average of 10 hours per week to this unit, including all scheduled and unscheduled activities and preparing and executing the assessment tasks.

Resources

The required textbook is Gerry Bates, Environmental Law in Australia (11th ed) (2023) LexisNexis.

Students can purchase these textbooks online.

NB: Additional readings will be supplied through Leganto that is accessed via the iLearn page.

Students require access to a computer, internet with decent speed and a secure/reliable server.

The iLearn page contains all Unit requirements and a weekly schedule for teaching, readings and tutorials.

Information about all assessment tasks is also available on iLearn.

Unit Schedule

LAWS8055 - Schedule of topics 2025

Topic 1 – How can law help the current global environmental crisis?

Topic 2 - First Nation's culture, philsophy and law/lore and environmental law

Topic 3 - The globalisation of environment law

Topic 4 - Case study of an international environmental law treaty – Climate change

Topic 5 - Transnational environmental law

Topic 6 - Federal environmental law in Australia

Topic 7 - Subnational environmental law in Australia

Topic 8 - The relationship between Australian environmental law and international environmental law

Topic 9 - Rights and the environment (human rights and rights of nature)
Topic 10 - Law regulating business/corporations and the environment
Topic 11 - Criminal law and the environment (Ecocide)
Topic 12 - Designing environmental law for the 21st century
Topic 13 - Revision

 

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit connect.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via the Service Connect Portal, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.


Unit information based on version 2025.04 of the Handbook