Environmental Law

Recommended Prerequisites

Constitutional law, administrative law, international law.

Teaching Methods

The continuous assessment will be based on attendance, oral presentation on a chosen topic and collective discussion of an individual research project.

Learning Outcomes

Students are expected to know the basic legal instruments of Environmental Law in Portugal and in the European Union. They are expected to understand that this is a field of law that is developing fast, and eventually be able to demonstrate their ability to innovate and propose new concepts and innovative legal techniques thus promoting efficiency, environmental justice and ecological justice.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

The objective is to demonstrate the need for an "ecological renewal" (Ost) of Law under the influence of environmental law. It will be shown with examples that the social issues underlying contemporary environment law are evolving, that the protected legal interests and legal values that justify legal protection of the environment are new, and that the guiding legal principles inspiring the solutions are unique and specific to this branch of law.
Thus, the traditional instruments of internal and international law are clearly insufficient. It is necessary to reshape them according to the requirements of a State bound by an Environmental Rule of Law.
This is the starting point of a trip around the main legal provisions for the Environment, with the aim to understand their role in an integrated environmental protection system and encouraging the creation of new legal techniques - effective and fair – for the protection of emerging environmental values locally and globally.

Head Lecturer(s)

Maria Alexandra Sousa Aragão

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Other: 30.0%
Research work: 70.0%

Bibliography

Aragão, Maria Alexandra de Sousa - O Princípio do Nível Elevado de Protecção e a Renovação Ecológica do Direito do Ambiente e dos Resíduos, Almedina, Coimbra, 2006
Gomes, Carla Amado - Risco e Modificação do Acto Autorizativo Concretizador de Deveres de Protecção do Ambiente, Coimbra Editora, Coimbra, 2007
A Reinvenção da Autorização Administrativa no Direito do Ambiente
José Eduardo Figueiredo Dias, Coimbra Editora, Coimbra, 2014.