Environmental Law and Sustainable Development

The MA in Environmental Law and Sustainable Development provides a unique specialisation in a rapidly evolving area of law that covers a range of issues at the heart of major contemporary developments and debates.

This programme offers a wide range of distinctive modules that combine a focus on core subjects in the field alongside a critical inquiry into the theory and practice of environmental law, particularly as they relate to the global South.

Why study MA in Environmental Law and Sustainable Development at SOAS

• We are ranked in the UK top 20 (QS World University Rankings 2023)
• SOAS is ranked 6th in the UK for employability (QS World University Rankings 2023)
• Our research publications have been rated first in the UK - and our School of Law rated 6th in the UK - in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021
• SOAS degrees offers a distinct and unique mix of modules that covers the main areas of environmental law in their international and national dimensions, with a focus on the global South
• We understand environmental law as deeply connected with human and social issues. This is why our compulsory introductory course is a course on Law Environment and Social Justice. This also explains why human rights dimensions find repeated place in our courses
• Our international environmental law focused courses (International Environmental Law, Climate Change Law and Policy, and Law and Global Commons) will offer you a strong bases in some of the main challenges arising at the international and global level and provide you particular insights in the global South-global North aspects of relevant regimes that are on the whole structured around a North-South dichotomy

SOAS Law, Environment and Development Centre (LEDC)

The programme is anchored in the research carried out at SOAS on environmental law whose institutional home is the Law, Environment and Development Centre (LEDC). The LEDC is the focal point for environment-related research activities in the School of Law, including a vibrant PhD cohort, an annual seminar series, the publication of the Law, Environment and Development Journal (LEAD Journal), and other activities linked to ongoing research.

As students on the LLM in environmental law, you will be invited to become student members of the LEDC, providing you an opportunity to become involved and engage with the SOAS research community and actors in the field, which includes many scholars in different departments and inter-disciplinary centres, such as the Centre for Development, Environment and Policyand the Centre for Water and Development.

Why you

This programme is ideal for graduates or professionals with no law background but an interest in the theory and practice of environmental law and related fields, particularly as they relate to the global South.

After you graduate, you will join alumni from the MA at SOAS, many of whom are now working in environmental NGOs and consultancies, in government, in policy work at the national or international level (UN or other) or in academia.