Social and legal aspects of the environment

The complexity of the human-environment relationship and its cultural, social, political and legal dimension will be at the core of the course. The course will explore the genesis of the environmental knowledge from the perspective of the environmental anthropology , environmental philosophy and ethics.
This module will also provide a legal reference point for students, which will be useful both for present study and future practice. For example, they will become familiar with the nomination process for World Heritage inscription; will know what the limits of the law are with respect to cultural heritage protection; and will be able to assess the possibilities of human rights and other legal frameworks.

No prerequisites are required.

1. Introduction
   • Aims and purpose of the module
   • Syllabus presentation
   • Student assessment
   • Bibliography and suggested sources

2. Humans and their Environment :
   • Overview on contradictions and dilemmas in late capitalism
   • Growing attention to environmental justice, equity and fairness
   • Health and Environment- growing social attention

3. Concepts and their extension:
   • Environmentalism and Ecology and their discourse- Urban ecology, Landscape-Cultural landscape, Climate Change, Pollution, Green buildings, Energy and Environment, Biodiversity, Sustainability, etc.
   • Sustainability and environmental policies (from scientific-technological knowledge to public attention, population –environment debate on resource conflict)
   • Environmental concern and place making (landscape as new design paradigm, green urbanism and architecture, Cities and nature-Urban ecology, conservation and restoration (conservation, recycling, upcycling etc.)

4. Main international instruments for environmental protection I
   • Protected areas in international law
   • 1972 World Heritage Convention
   • Implementation, monitoring and compliance with 1972 Convention
   • Whose heritage? Communities, the state and the general interest of humanity as a whole
   • How world heritage status affects international and domestic law
   • The relationship between the WHC and other environmental treaties

5. Main international instruments for environmental protection II
   • UN Declaration on the Human Environment (Stockholm 1972)
   • UN Declaration on Environment and Development (1992)
   • Aarhus Convention 1998
   • Marine and freshwater conservation
   • The regime for protecting Antarctica

6. Environmental protection and human rights law
   • Nature and scope of environmental rights in international law
   • Environment in international human rights courts
   • Regional human rights treaties
   • The promises and limits of human rights for environmental protection
   • Environmental rights in other international fora (investor tribunals)

7. Environment in the European context
   • EU Law and Environmental Impact Assessment
   • Natura 2000 and protected areas
   • European Landscape Convention and role of Council of Europe
   • Access to information, public participation and access to justice
   • Contentious cases an national level in Europe

8. Environment, landscape and commons
   • Shifting conceptual boundaries of property and landscape
   • Forms of property and forms of goods (public, private, co- ownership, commons) and effective management of environment and heritage
   • Actors and stakeholders: owners, users, individuals, communities
   • New technologies, intellectual property, copyright and creative commons
   • Emerging calls for landscape rights and landscape democracy

9. Contemporary challenges in social and legal aspects of the environment
   • Democratisation of environmental protection in practice
   • Public interest litigation
   • An international criminal court for the environment?
   • Environmental governance and the culture-nature dichotomy
   • Expanding the precautionary principle and enlightened judicial approaches

By the end of this module, the students will have an understanding of the role of law (especially international law) in the protection of environmental heritage and the environment. They will understand the legal context of their field of work and will be able to draw on what is relevant for their own research and/or practice.

At the end of course, the students must submit a written assignment on a topic provided by the lecturer (from a choice of three). They may choose between a practical and theoretical topic but the assignment must involve substantial personal research effort and reflection.

Jerneja Penca is a Senior Research Fellow at the Science and Research Centre Koper and Head of its Mediterranean Institute for Environmental Studies. She researches aspects of governance of socio-ecological systems at global, regional (EU, Mediterranean) and national levels. Her research covers various regimes, including biodiversity, climate change, energy, fisheries and plastic pollution. She is strongly committed to the exchange between the scientific community and policy makers in order to inform policy decisions and shape research questions, including via the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the MedECC and other science-policy interfaces. She holds a PhD in International Law from the European University Institute in Florence, a Master's degree in Environmental Law from the University of Nottingham, UK, and a BA in International Relations from the University of Ljubljana. Her bibliography is available at https://bib.cobiss.net/biblioweb/biblio/si/slv/cris/38797

Research areas: Environmental and Sustainability Governance; Transnational Environmental Law; Biodiversity Governance; Interdisciplinary Marine Sciences and Sustainable Blue Economy; Science-Policy Interface.