C9607 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Learning outcomes

Students will develop a thorough understanding of international chemicals management regulations with a focus on environmental protection. This course unit integrates principles from waste material regulations, international environmental law, and REACH and CLP frameworks, highlighting their roles in safeguarding the environment. The student is expected to be able to: 1. Understand the legal instruments regulating environmental protection at international and EU levels, including the sustainable development paradigm, climate change laws, and rights of nature frameworks; 2. Apply the principles of REACH and CLP regulations to manage chemical risks, focusing on classification, labelling, and safe use of chemicals in supply chains; 3. Evaluate waste material regulations, analyzing their impact on reducing environmental harm, ensuring proper disposal, and promoting resource recovery within sustainable frameworks.

Course contents

The CU is composed of three modules with the following contents:

1) REACH and CLP Regulations: The course provides an overview of the remit of REACH and the increased responsibility it places on industry to manage chemical risks. The course introduces to the aims and core principles of REACH: protection of human health and the environment; enhance EU chemical industry competitiveness; and the promotion of alternative methods of dangerous substance assessment.The Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation (EC) No. 1272/2008, is another column of the Chemical Management Program in the European Union and provides the rules for the classification of hazardous compounds, their labelling, and Safety Data Sheet (SDS) information. The course provides an overview of this important regulation.

2) Waste Material Regulations: This module provides an overview of the more important EU and some Non-EU regulation about hazardous waste materials and in particular chemical waste materials. The course introduces to the aims and core principles of EU waste hierarchy. In applying the hierarchy hazardous waste producers and waste managers shall opt for hazardous waste management that takes into account the resource value of hazardous wastes, and the need for health and safety to be maintained and delivers the best overall environmental outcome. 1. What is hazardous waste?2. High level principles for management of hazardous waste: Waste hierarchy3. Hazardous chemical waste management: treatment methods4. Strategies for recycling and reuse chemical waste materials 5. European strategy about hazardous materials.6. Relevant EU Directives and Regulations: Waste Framework Directive (WFD) . Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC). Landfill Directive (LFD), Waste Acceptance Criteria (Council Decision 2003/33). Waste Shipments RegulationsAt the end of the module the student is expected to be able to:- correctly identify hazardous waste; - understand the more important EU regulation about hazardous waste;- correctly use strategies for valorisation of hazardous waste.

3) International Law and New Ecological Legal Patterns of Environmental Protection: The module introduces international law related to Environmental Protection, with essential notions about the sources of environmental law and new perspectives on ecological law.
Part 1: Environmental legislation within the sustainable development model: the history of sustainability; International environmental legislation (in particular, UNFCCC and CBD); the EU Green Deal and its implementation; comparative environmental constitutionalism
Part 2: A critical perspective from the Earth Law: definition of Earth Law; Rights of Nature; Climate Change Litigation and the right to a stable climate
At the end of the module the student is expected to be able to:
- know the main legal instruments, at constitutional, supra-national and international level, that regulate the climate and the environment
- be able to connect the legal framework with the sustainable development paradigm
- acquire a critical perspective on the current global environmental legal paradigm
- be able to compare and classify cases applying both the traditional and critical perspectives

Readings/Bibliography

Module 1 and 2: Lecturer's notes and slides

3) International Law and New Ecological Legal Patterns of Environmental Protection:

Christopher D. Stone, Should Trees Have Standing?–Towards Legal Rights for Natural Objects, in Southern California Law Review 45 (1972): 450-501;

S. Bagni, Rights of Nature and Ecosystem Approach: An Introduction, in S. Bagni, S. Baldin, V. Federico (eds), Law, Nature and the Ecosystem Approach. Modelling a Transcultural Eco-Legal Framework across Europe and Latin America, Routledge, New York/Abingdon, 2026, ISBN 9781041168539, pp. 3-22, http://www.routledge.com/9781041168539

Teaching methods

The course unit is divided into three modules taught independently at different times in the academic year, each module is organized in theoretical classes where main concepts are introduced, as well as tutorial classes with discussion of case-study examples.

Assessment methods

Each module learning is evaluated independently, exploiting: i) written tests; ii) oral presentations or interviews; iii) written assignments or combinations of them. The Course Unit grade will be the arithmetic mean of grades from the three modules. ChIRS grades scale goes from 1 to 100, pass grade is
40, and will be translated into ECTS and different University scales. Criteria: knowledge on a very limited number of topics covered in the course and analytical ability that emerges only with the help of the instructor, using generally correct language → 40-45;
Knowledge on a limited number of topics covered in the course and independent analytical ability only on purely executive
issues, using correct language → 45-60;
Knowledge on a large number of topics covered in the course, ability to make independent critical analysis choices, mastery
of specific terminology → 60-80;
Essentially comprehensive knowledge on the topics covered in the course, ability to make independent critical analysis and
connection choices, full mastery of specific terminology, and ability for argumentation and self-reflection → 80-100.

3) International Law and New Ecological Legal Patterns of Environmental Protection:

Students will be asked to write an essay. They will have to choose a special ecosystem, a species, an animal, a plant, a biome, a "natural" element of their country that they would like to protect and write a petition using the arguments we have studied during the course in order to guarantee its protection. They will have to explain with scientific data why it is in danger and why it is ecosytemically important to protect. Then, they will have to use legal arguments to claim its protection. They can use both an anthropocentric and/or an ecocentric approach. They can also add a Popular Legislative Initiative.

They will have to write between 5 and 10 pages, font Times New Roman 12, space line 1,5. Add at the end the list of norms cited and the bibliography used.

They can work alone or in pair. They will have two months from the end of the course to upload your paper.

USE OF AI

For assessment purposes, limited, declared, and non-substantial use of AI is permitted for support activities (summary, reformulations). Substantial use for completing parts of the test is not permitted.

Teaching tools

Lectures slides and notes will be available on the course moodle https://emmcchir-learning.ualg.pt

Office hours

See the website of Silvia Bagni

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