Law and Natural Resources (PLAC126) - 30 credits

a)    Description

This course examines international, regional and national legal and institutional arrangements concerning the conservation and use of natural resources. It introduces legal principles relevant to the conservation and use of natural resources in international and national law. This course focuses on the international law aspects of natural resource use and conservation, the North-South dimension and on individual developing country case studies.

Natural resource regulation is analysed within the broad conceptual framework of the notion of sustainable development. As a result, this course examines simultaneously economic development aspects of natural resource regulation, social development aspects and environmental aspects. This course specifically seeks to make the links between the exploitation of natural resources for macro-economic development and subsistence and other uses of natural resources for food security and health needs as well as the links between use for economic development and conservation, for instance, in the context of broader policy challenges such as climate change.

This course starts with a background to natural resource regulation, including basic principles of international law relevant to natural resources, such as sovereignty and related concepts for natural resource appropriation, differential treatment/equity, sustainable development and human rights. It also examines the role of some of the main actors in natural resource use and conservation such as the World Bank and transnational companies. The course then moves on to examine a number of more specific issues within the context of selected natural resources. Natural resources considered include water, mineral resources, minerals and energy, forests, and fisheries and marine.

Objectives

This course seeks to equip students with a broad understanding of the laws and policy issues concerning natural resources. It specifically seeks to provide students with a broad understanding of basic concepts and principles underlying the conservation and use of natural resources at the international and national levels. It examines in particular the regulation of natural resources within the overall framework of sustainable development. It thus seeks to equip students with the ability to understand and analyse issues concerning natural resource conservation and use from a broad perspective encompassing their economic, social and environmental dimensions.

b)   Indicative syllabus (subject to change)

1.     Context, Sustainable Development and Inequality

BACKGROUND AND GOVERNANCE

2.     Framework for the Use and Conservation of Natural Resources – Basic Principles

3.     Evolving Governance and Role of International Financial Institutions

RIGHTS, PARTICIPATION AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE

4.     Human Rights and Natural Resources

5.     Property Rights over Natural Resources

6.     Privatisation of Natural Resources: Air and Water

7.     Participatory Natural Resources Management

8.     Access to Justice and Natural Resources

LAND

9.     Land Rights, Land Reform and Land Acquisition

10.  Large Scale Land Acquisitions and Beyond

TERM 2

11.  Land Rights and Indigenous Peoples  

BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES

12.  Biological Resources: Food Security/Sovereignty & Forests

13.  Use of Plant Genetic Resources: Farmers/Peasants’ Rights and Access and Benefit Sharing

14.  Controlling Access to Biological Resources: Traditional Knowledge Protection, Biopiracy and Geographical Indications

CORPORATIONS AND NATURAL RESOURCES

15.  Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Accountability Related to Natural Resources

16.  Natural Resource Investment and Investor-State Disputes     

17.  Corporate Liability and Use of Natural Resources     

MINING, OIL/GAS & ENERGY

18.  Mining and the Resource Curse  

19.  Oil and Gas      

20.  Energy

c)   Assessment (subject to change)

Assessment comprises two different elements:

·      Briefing paper: 1’500-words (30% of the total mark)

·      Essay: 5’000 words (70% of the total mark)

d)   General Reference Books Related to the Course