Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Provides a practical introduction to the legal system governing the use and protection of the environment and planning and land use law in Canada. A central theme is the difference between the law on paper and the law in practice. Students who have taken ENV 399-3 "Special Topics in Environmental Law" in 2012 may not take this course for further credit. Students with credit for ENV 319 or PLAN 319 may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course is a participatory introduction to Canadian environmental and planning law.

Lectures will present Canada’s key environmental laws in their historical, environmental, socio-political and court contexts and on key topics such as biodiversity, climate change, division of powers and Aboriginal-Indigenous rights.

No previous legal training is required. The classes will give foundational knowledge (eg: what is a legal case, how are laws interpreted) towards understanding context, application and future direction of environmental law.

Reflecting that laws and their application are shaped by debate, each class will begin with assigned student debates – students briefly debating on a lecture topic’s key environmental/legal issue.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

After completing this class, you should understand at a high level:

• the role and jurisdiction of Canada’s governments, including Indigenous governments, in creating, applying and enforcing/complying with environmental law;
• how Canada’s legal system works including a basic understanding of how laws are made and how they are applied by Canada’s court system, how that system is engaged and by whom, how it makes its decisions, and how to learn about those decisions;
• Canada’s key environment and planning laws and the key issues surrounding their application in the most relevant environmental contexts; and,
• the possible evolution of environmental and planning law.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: