Environmental and Energy Law

Despite bringing prosperity, industrialisation generally leads to increasing levels of pollution which has a detrimental impact on the environment. In response, legislation which seeks to control or prevent such impact has become common.  Similarly, climate change and energy security have become major drivers for the regulatory regimes that have emerged in the energy field. Given the global or regional scope of many environmental problems, international cooperation is often necessary to ensure such legislation is effective. The EU and the UK have contributed to the development of  the environmental and energy law regimes currently in force, spanning across international, transnational and national levels. At the same time, practical responses to environmental and energy problems have largely been the focus of engineers, scientists and other technical experts. Environmental & Energy Law attempts to bridge the knowledge gap between legal developments designed to achieve environmental and/or energy-related objectives and the practical, scientific and technical considerations applicable to the same environmental problems. In particular, it attempts to convey a broad range of topical issues in environmental and energy law, from climate and energy regulation, technology innovation and transfer, to pollution control, environmental governance and enforcement. In addition the book outlines key sector specific legal regimes (including water, waste and air quality management), focusing on issues or topics that are particularly relevant to both environmental and energy lawyers, and engineering, science and technology-oriented professionals and students.  In this vein, the book guides the reader on some basic practical applications of the law within scientific, engineering and other practical settings.

The book will be useful to all those working or studying in the environmental or energy arena, including law students, legal professionals, engineering and science students and professionals. By adopting a multi-disciplinary approach to environmental and energy law, the book embraces all readerships and helps to address the often thorny problem of communication between scientists, engineers, lawyers and policy-makers.

Author Biography

Karen E. Makuch is lecturer in environmental law and energylaw in the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial CollegeLondon, where she teaches postgraduate courses on EnvironmentalAnalysis & Assessment, Pollution Management and GlobalEnvironmental Change & Policy. She has a wide-range ofexperience in the practical application of EU Environmental Law andits implementation, including in new and potential EU MemberStates. Ricardo Pereira (LLM, Ph.D.) is Lecturer in Environmental& Energy Law in the Centre for Environmental Policy, ImperialCollege London. He also convenes and lectures in the LLM inEnvironmental Law in the Law School at Queen Mary, University ofLondon, on International Natural Resources Law and theInternational Law of the Sea.