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.

Professor Richard Macrory was the UK participant at a workshop on EU environmental law organized by the Avosetta Group and held at the National Institute for Public Administration (INAP) in Madrid. Environmental lawyers from most EU Member States attended to discuss how in practice national courts handled conflicts between national and EU environmental law using doctrines such as direct effect and sympathetic interpretation. A book on the subject is now planned as a result of the meeting snd will be edited by Prof Jan Jans (Gronijen University) Richard Macrory, and Angel Moreno (Director INAP) The Avosetta Group is a small informal group of lawyers whose main purpose is to further the development of environmental law in the European Union and Member States. Professor Macrory is a Trustee of the Group.

Dr Chiara Armeni (UCL Laws); Professor Maria Lee (UCL Laws); Dr Simon Lock (UCL Science & Technology Studies); Professor Tadj Oreszczyn (UCL Energy Institute). Chaired by Professor Yvonne Rydin (UCL Bartlett School of Planning and Director, UCL Environment Institute).

About this event
Technological innovation is likely to play a significant role in moving to a low carbon economy. Alongside the technological and scientific challenges, this presents considerable governance challenges. There are currently major gaps in the ways in which UK high level political discourse on climate change technologies addresses governance. The focus tends to be on economic incentives; the full complexity of the governance challenges associated with capturing the carbon savings potential of technological innovation is barely acknowledged.

Furthermore, the ways in which different publics might engage with climate change technologies other than through economic incentives are rarely considered, and tried and tested governance frameworks (such as planning) are generally discussed (if at all) as barriers that must be overcome. But any technology is embedded in its social context, and the public in their diverse roles (as citizens, consumers, members of communities) play unavoidable and important roles in the adoption, proliferation and impact of climate change technologies. This seminar will explore some of the diverse governance challenges thrown up by climate change technologies. Presentations include:

• Building Insulation – The challenges and intended consequences of insulating the existing housing stock
• Wind Energy & the Public – NIMBYism, engagement or just a load of hot air?
• Capturing the Opportunities and Challenges of Governing CCS Technologies.

Going Low Carbon: Event Executive Summary (pdf)

INAUGURAL LECTURE
Prof. Jane Holder, UCL Faculty of Laws
Chair: Stephen Hockman QC

About this lecture
We are nearing the end of the UN’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) (2005-14). This has triggered important initiatives in schools and, increasingly, in higher and further education. In this lecture I critically examine the form of sustainability advanced by the ESD movement and question the role of legal education in furthering this. I am particularly concerned with how to relate sustainability and justice, including environmental justice – the fair and equal distribution of environmental ‘goods’ and ‘bads’, since combining these concepts seems to offer an important means by which law teachers can contribute to the ESD agenda and, possibly, reframe it in a more far-reaching and politically challenging manner. I illustrate these points with examples of radical ESD thinking and action, including the process of ‘greening’ UCL.