a) Description
This course is an introductory module to environmental justice that aims at giving students a solid and comprehensive foundation of key concepts of environmental justice and law and a grounding in some of the most topical and foundational debates with special reference to South Asia. These include the role of justice frameworks in relation to environmental protection, as well as key debates in environmental legal regulation. The aim is to provide a platform from which to better appreciate some of the central tensions and dynamics in the study of environmental justice and law generally. The course will introduce environmental justice in its South Asian context, in historical perspective, in a domestic, comparative and regional context from a theoretical and practical perspective.
The course includes an introduction to environment justice in historical perspective, a contextualisation in terms of development debates and environmental justice, an examination of the place of domestic law in South Asian countries in relation to international debates, an analysis of principles of environmental law, an introduction to the main regulatory techniques, specific consideration of enforcement through courts and different actors relevant in environmental law.
Learning outcomes
- Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of environmental justice in its broader context, including its political, economic, social and ecological dimensions.
- Evaluate the foundational concepts and principles of the law concerning the conservation and use of the environment, with special reference to South Asia.
- Apply advanced analytical tools to critically assess environmental justice and implementing policies and legal instruments, particularly in the South Asian context.
- Engage critically with contemporary debates and challenges within the field of environmental justice.
b) Indicative syllabus (subject to change)
1. Introduction: Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, and South Asia
2. Environmental justice and equity: theoretical bases
3. Framing Environmental Law in a South-North Context: Poverty and Development
4. Whose Environmental Law? From Colonial Influences to International and Transnational Environmental Law
5. Forests and tribal environmental governance
6. Corporate accountability and the Bhopal disaster
7. Agriculture, farmers’ rights and environmental justice
8. Mining and environmental justice
9. Sanitation, the environment and justice: From Swacch Bharat Mission to manual scavenging
10. Wastes and Plastics
c) Assessment (subject to change)
Assessment comprises two different elements:
A 1,000-word Policy brief/Book review, worth 30 % of the mark.
A 2,500-word essay worth 70% of the mark.
d) General Reference Books Related to the Course
Sumudu A. Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez and Sara L. Seck (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development 289-302 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2021).
Varsha Bhagat-Ganguly and Sujit Kumar (eds), India’s Scheduled Areas: Untangling Governance, Law and Politics (Routledge 2019).
Philippe Cullet & Sujith Koonan eds, Research Handbook on Law, Environment and the Global South (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2019).
Alan Diduck, Kirit Patel, Aruna Kumar Malik eds, Advancing Environmental Justice for Marginalized Communities in India – Progress, Challenges and Opportunities (Routledge, 2022).
Sharachchandra Lélé and Ajit Menon (eds), Democratizing Forest Governance in India (OUP 2014).
Krishna Mallick, Environmental Movements of India: Chipko, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Navdanya (Amsterdam University Press 2021).
Melanie Pichler et al eds, Fairness and Justice in Natural Resource Politics (Routledge, 2017).