There is growing public awareness and concern about the increased risk to the natural environment due to a range of human-induced and natural environmental disasters. Current forms of environmental regulation and ecosystem management have largely failed to effectively protect the natural environment and to secure a future for the human population. Utilising interdisciplinary and regulatory theories, and comparative analysis of different regulatory contexts, this course will consider all aspects of the 'life cycle 'of environmental risk regulation. Commencing with identification of potential harms and the effective design of preventative and precautionary regulatory regimes, this will be followed by evaluation of the law relevant to administrative governance including adaptation to conditions of change and climate variability, and finally recovery and restoration of the environment following governance failures and natural disasters (including potential legal remedies).
A broad range of risk contexts and regimes will be relevant, such as:
- ecological and other risks due to land use planning, impact assessment and development consent regimes
- methodologies for risk assessment regimes (including chemicals and pharmaceuticals, quarantine/invasive species, GMOs, nanotechnology)
- effective policies to control greenhouse gases and other recognised pollutants
- legislation for the remediation of contaminated sites
- environmental and health risks for contested industries and technologies such as new bio/agricultural industries and an emergent nuclear industry in Australia, and
- regulatory regimes specific to emergency and disaster management of droughts, fires and floods.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Select and defend a choice or choices of regulatory regimes to address systemic and complex environmental risks and disaster responses.
- Synthesise and apply relevant principles of law to environmental risk governance and to disaster recovery and remediation.
- Research and incorporate interdisciplinary approaches to law when addressing environmental risks and environmental harms.
- Compare, contrast and critique regulatory approaches in a variety of risk and disaster response contexts.
Indicative Assessment
- The proposed means of assessment for this course will provide students with at least two pieces of assessment, including one piece during the teaching period. More information about the means of assessment, including the relationship between the assessment and the learning outcomes of the course, will be available in the class summary and on the course WATTLE page. (100) [LO 1,2,3,4]
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
- Classes offered in non-standard sessions will be taught on an intensive base with compulsory contact hours (approximately 26 hours of face to face teaching). The course will also require advanced preparation through assigned readings. In total, it is anticipated that the hours required for completion of this course (class preparation, teaching and completion of assessment) will not exceed 120 hours.
- Classes offered during semester periods are expected to have 3 contact hours per week.
Click here for the LLM Masters Program timetable.
Inherent Requirements
Not applicable
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
Students must rely on the approved Class Summary which will be posted to the Programs and Courses site approximately two weeks prior to the commencement of the course. Alternatively, this information will be published in the Program course list when known.
Preliminary Reading
Students must rely on the approved Class Summary which will be posted to the Programs and Courses site approximately two weeks prior to the commencement of the course.
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 34
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2025 | $5280 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2025 | $6720 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.