Introducing our new Law (Environment and Sustainability Pathway) LLB
We are proud to announce the launch of the UK’s first undergraduate degree specialising in law, environment and sustainability here at Surrey Law School in September 2024. This hugely topical pathway is open to all LLB students who want to specialise in areas of law relating to the environment and sustainability from the start of their second year.
Why study the Law (Environment and Sustainability Pathway)?
The triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution is a complex, global challenge that needs changes to laws and policies at national and international levels. Fundamental reforms of legal systems are key to transforming our economic system and relationship with nature, ensuring a future where we can all live well together within planetary limits.
In response to the need for legal reform, there is now a growing demand amongst law firms, governments, businesses and the third sector for graduates with knowledge of the interconnections between law, environmental and sustainability issues. Challenges range from water, biodiversity, climate change and waste to planning, technology, finance and trade law. Surrey Law School’s unique pathway meets this demand by providing students with the knowledge and skills to be the specialist environmental lawyers of the future in the UK, EU and internationally.
The knowledge and skills you acquire on this pathway will support your development and help you make effective changes in the world. Our students’ employability is at the heart of what we do at Surrey and Surrey Law School has excellent careers support. We are working with colleagues to build the opportunities, including placements, for Law (Environment and Sustainability) LLB pathway students to engage with specialists in law firms, government agencies, businesses and the non-profit sector.
Who should study this pathway?
This pathway is open to all our undergraduate students on our LLB programmes at the end of their first year. The pathway is ideal if you’re interested in learning how the law can be used to address global environment and sustainability challenges nationally, regionally and internationally.
What will you study on the Law (Environment and Sustainability Pathway) LLB?
The new Law (Environment and Sustainability Pathway) LLB includes several mandatory law modules: Law and Climate Change, Environmental Law in Action and Access to Environmental Justice – where students will explore access to environmental justice by doing innovative policy clinic work. The pathway is uniquely interdisciplinary for an undergraduate LLB as you will also be able to select optional modules on environment and sustainability offered by other departments in social sciences and sciences.
These include:
- Everyday Consumption and Consequences
- Exploring Environmental Crime
- Key Questions in Environmental Psychology
- Food Security.
Students can also select optional modules available within the Surrey Law School, for example:
- Cybersecurity
- Human Rights: Law of the ECHR
- International Law.
Students who are inspired to undertake a deeper analysis into a specific topic can choose to do a dissertation – an extended final year research project, related to law, environment and sustainability. The dissertation element is an option available on all law programmes, not a mandatory requirement of the pathway.
Learn from experts in the field
The mandatory modules on the pathway will be taught by our leading environmental law and sustainability academics from Surrey Law School’s Surrey Centre for International and Environmental Law (SCIEL). SCIEL brings together research specialists at the University of Surrey and internationally to respond to global environmental challenges using interdisciplinary approaches. For example, our experts at Governing Plastics Network, jointly led with the University of Nairobi, has conducted research across Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, India and Australia, while undertaking high-level research to support the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Students who select the Law (Environment and Sustainability Pathway) LLB will be encouraged to actively engage in SCIEL’s activities.
Alongside the pathway lead Dr Feja Lesniewska, your lecturers for mandatory law modules will be SCIEL’s co-directors Professor Rosalind Malcolm and Associate Professor Noreen O’Meara, who are research scholars working on topics across the UK, EU and international environmental law, EU law, climate change and human rights law.
Your lecturers are all actively engaged with Surrey’s Institute for Sustainability where they contribute to the leadership and activities of research. programmes on topics including plastics and the circular economy, governance, equality and sustainability, and AI and sustainability.
Law (Environment and Sustainability Pathway) LLB Programme Leader
Dr Feja Lesniewska, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Transitions and Environmental Law, is a transdisciplinary legal research scholar focusing on sustainability, resource efficiency, climate change, digital technologies, land use and rights-based approaches. She has undertaken research in China, Central and West Africa, Europe, Russia and the UK as well as internationally. Feja has worked for environmental NGOs including ClientEarth and acted as a consultant for several environmental think tanks, including the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). In 2021 Feja spent time on secondment with the Environment Agency (England).
For more information on the pathway please contact Dr Lesniewska at f.lesniewska@surrey.ac.uk
Related sustainable development goals
