UCL Centre for Law and Environment

On Friday 15^th March, the 7^th Annual Public Interest Environmental Law (PIEL) UK Conference was held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in Russell Square. PIEL UK comprises a committee made up entirely of students from universities around the UK. This year, students from a wide range of universities took part including UCL, SOAS, City Law School, BPP, Southampton and Sussex took part.

• Key note address by Professor Surya Subedi, University of Leeds

The subject of this year’s conference centred on the highly topical and emotive issue of land grabbing, and was titled ‘Development or Land Grabbing? Legal Challenges of the Global Land Rush.’ Speakers included some of the leading players in the fields of development, foreign direct investment, land grabbing and agrarian justice, providing diverse perspectives on how to approach the regulation of land acquisition going forward. There were also breakout workshops in the afternoon delivered on some more specific issues, such as REDD+ in the context of land grabs, the role of indigenous knowledge, and the inter-connectedness of global trade.

This year’s committee aimed to make the conference as sustainable as practically possible. All food was organic and locally made, with leftovers donated to a local homeless shelter; all waste was recycled; the conference was largely paper free with guests encouraged not to print tickets and programs not handed out. The whole event was also broadcast live on the Internet and a recording of all sessions can now be found on YouTube.

Sponsors for this year’s conference were: University College London, City Law School, London School of Economics, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Queen Mary University and Harrison Grant Solicitors.

Tom Cripps

Sustainability Officer/Committee Member

PIEL UK 2013

On 19th February, City law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer organized  a supper for UCL LLM students studying environmental and energy courses.  The event was hosted by partners Andrew Austin and Paul Bowden, with short presentations from a number of younger environmental  lawyers on what life in a city environmental law practice was like.  Stephen Tromans QC, one of the UK’s leading environmental law barristers, gave a fascinating presentation tracing the main developments in UK environmental law from the time he was a student to his current position.

The Symposium is jointly-organised by University College London Centre for Law and the Environment and King’s College London Dickson Poon School of Law, and seeks to provide environmental law and governance research students the opportunity to meet, present and discuss their work in a supportive environment.

Register online | Download the conference programme

This main purpose of this one day conference is to consider the impact on the enforcement of environmental regulation following the introduction of a greater range of sanctions under Part III of the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act.

New enforcement statements covering both criminal and civil sanctions have been developed by the Environment Agency and Natural England. Over thirty enforcement undertakings have been accepted the Agency over the past year.A new Environment Tribunal has been established to determine appeals against the imposition of civil sanctions.

Fees: £100 standard ticket, £75 UKELA members, £50 Academics / NGOs / Government lawyers. £10 non-UCL students, £5 UCL Students

View the Conference Programme | Register online for the conference:

Martin Hession, currently chair of the UN Clean Development Mechanism Executive Board, has been appointed an Hon Senior Visiting Research Fellow to the Faculty for three years starting this month. Martin is a barrister, a former academic at Imperial College, and has been a senior official at Department of Energy and Climate Change for a number of years involved in climate change policy at EU and international level.

Professor Richard Macrory, co-director of the Centre, said, “I am delighted that Martin who has a such a wealth of recent experience in climate change policy and legal issues wishes to be associated with the Centre and the Law Faculty. We look forward to opportunities for collaboration over the next few years.”

Presentation and Internship Opportunities Evening
With snacks and drinks
Thursday 14 June 2012, 5-7pm
Cissy Chu Common Room, Graduate Wing,
UCL Faculty of Laws, Endsleigh Street, London, WC1H 0EG
RSVP: Jane Holder (jane.holder@ucl.ac.uk)

Jointly organised by University College London (UCL) Centre for Law and the Environment and King’s College London (KCL) Dickson Poon School of Law. To provide postgraduate students working in the broad area of Environmental Law and Governance the chance to present their work in a supportive, subject-specific forum, the joint organisers will hold a postgraduate research symposium on Wednesday 7 November 2012. The symposium will afford up to ten research students the opportunity to present on any aspect of their research.

The organisers are keen for the event to allow students to meet and network, in the hope of fostering a postgraduate environmental law research community and the establishment of reading groups. We actively encourage attendance from research students at all stages of their postgraduate work.

The symposium is made possible by generous funding from UCL Centre for Law and the Environment, and there is a budget to subsidise the travel costs of speakers. Lunch and refreshments will be provided during the day, followed by a drinks reception.

Those interested in presenting a paper in any area of Environmental Law and Governance are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 200 words by Monday 3 September 2012.

For further information, please contact: Emily Barritt, PhD Candidate, KCL Dickson Poon School of Law emily.barritt@kcl.ac.uk or Carrie Bradshaw, PhD Candidate, UCL Laws carrie.bradshaw@ucl.ac.uk

Professor Joanne Scott delivered a Faculty seminar at Cape Town University Law Faculty on 16 April 2012, entitled ‘EU Climate Change Unilateralism’. The paper on which the seminar was based will be published in the European Journal of International Law in May.

Professor Dave Campbell, University of Leeds
Chair: Prof. Joanne Scott, UCL
Time: 4.30 – 6pm
Venue: UCL Faculty of Laws
Download the paper

LLM Students at UCL and other universities held a highly successful one-day conference on 16 March at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies entitled ‘Alternative Environmental Government’. Key speakers at the 2012 PIEL Conference included Nicholas de Sadeleer from Université Catholique de Louvain, Emma Dickson from Blackstone Chambers, Paul Horsman from Greenpeace and Polly Higgins, barrister. The day was rounded off with a debate on the need for a new International Court of the Environment chaired by Stephen Hockman QC.

Public Interest Environmental Law (PIEL) is now in its sixth year and completely student run. The Conference has built up a strong reputation for excellence in bringing legal practitioners, academics and related professionals together with students to discuss and debate pertinent issues relating to environmental law.