Environmental Law: Basics and Comparative Studies

Environmental law is a discipline of its own since approximately 1970.  Since that time, one can find laws made by the state in India, Germany, the United States and many other countries of the world.  What one should realize from this date in time is that environmental law was produced by the social events of the 1960s, which themselves were a product of social unrest.  Some of the social unrest was due to worldwide awareness that the industrial processes that enabled rapid growth in wealth, also came with great costs to the social and natural worlds.  In its first generation, environmental law thus came about as an attempt to provide specific legal tools to conserve natural resources and protect human health and the natural world.  In its second generation, through the principle of sustainable development, environmental law now also includes economic and social concerns. And it is also in this second generation of environmental law that we realize that environmental problems are worldwide and may be solved in a variety of ways by different states through law.

The book " Environmental Law Across Cultures" by Prof. Junker can be downloaded when connected to the network of the University of Cologne: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/environmental-law-across-cultures-kirk-junker/e/10.4324/9780429397615

Click here for course materials.