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Macquarie Law School

Open Universities Australia

Students who are interested in studying via distance education through Open Universities Australia may apply to study the unit LEG102 - Sustainability, Science and the Law.

 Sustainability, Science and the Law

Today, right here and with us, the world faces a huge sustainability question:

If we want human rights, and community prosperity, and environmental justice ... should we place most importance on protecting the environment, growing the economy, demanding democratic freedom, seeking scientific certainty, arguing legal philosophy, promoting social fairness, defining ethical behaviour, upholding indigenous tradition, pursuing political practicality ... or all of these?

This unit critiques the multidisciplinary perspectives on humans and environment, and how legal innovation integrates them to enhance social ownership and political leadership towards a more sustained human and planetary future.

We examine science-law relationships, socio-political governance, environmental regulation, and social design and capacity building.

We consider a diversity of legislation, court cases, treaties, institutions, and community actors as sources of rights, obligations and influence which affect both environmental management directly and the progression of social regulation more generally towards a sustainable world.

We illustrate the issues and innovations in regulation for sustainability, with case studies from

  • water law
  • logging
  • fisheries
  • pollution
  • climate change 
  • food security
  • urbanisation
  • whaling
  • corporate sustainability
  • and many others

Your learning culminates in a major project where you will be individually mentored to apply your acquired legal problem solving skills, stakeholder analysis, collaborative research, and creativity to develop law reform proposals on local and global sustainability topics.

No prerequisite knowledge of the law is required to do this unit, and there is an emphasis on analysis of issues from pluralistic perspectives and a constant discourse between students from widely varying academic disciplines.

See the OUA website for more details:www.open.edu.au/public/courses-and-units/sci/unit-leg102-2011