MSc Law & Sustainability

The unit enables students to define and critically evaluate the concept of sustainable development and the key issues and debates relating to The United Nations Development Program’s warning in its Human Development Report 2007/2008 that the current economic model, following the footsteps of rich industrialised nations in growth and consumption, is ecologically unsustainable.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) acknowledge the need for a universal action plan with equal responsibilities amongst all nations, yet the field of sustainable development is still immature and requires further critical examination. The unit will also provide the necessary skills for understanding current debates and events in the fields of ecology, economic development and sustainability.

The unit draws attention to the conflicting goals of corporate law (i.e. the limitation of liability) and environmental law (i.e. ensuring that polluters pay for damage caused) and encourages students to consider and develop solutions to this problem. Whilst the unit focuses on UK, EU and international environmental law, many of the concepts covered are relevant to other jurisdictions.

This unit explores this vital area of law and addresses the struggle to achieve control of environmental problems against a backdrop of global politics and the more immediate regulatory issues surrounding the UK’s departure from the EU. Environmental problems, a warming planet, growing rubbish piles, the destruction of habitats and increasingly unbreathable air, are amongst the most complex faced by today’s societies. These problems also pose multiple challenges for legal control and regulation.

Ecosystems are understood only subject to significant scientific uncertainty and environmental issues as a whole tend to cross jurisdictional and disciplinary boundaries, involving problems of collective action often seemingly at odds with private interests and the generally anthropocentric approach of legal responses. Therefore the unit explores how the law responds to these challenges.

This unit provides an opportunity for students to develop further as independent learners through the completion of a supervised study, which can include some elements of research carried out in a fieldwork context. The first part of the unit covers the research approaches in business studies. It aims to prepare students to produce a project proposal. This part of the unit examines strategies, design, ethics, and methodologies with particular reference to both qualitative and quantitative methods.

The unit explores various methods appropriate to a range of disciplines, including organisational learning, business excellence, future foresight, innovation management, and sustainable development. It aims to develop students’ analytic skills, essential for conducting an independent research project that leads to a dissertation or consultancy report.

Students are expected to submit a dissertation of 15,000 words long. The dissertation carries 60 credits. This is usually submitted after all the modules have been completed.

The dissertation could be research-based or industry-based. In the first route, students are expected to conduct a research project in one of the three areas of specialism, focused on law and sustainability. In the second route, students are expected to carry out a consulting project at one of the organisations guided by the body of knowledge they mastered in the taught units.

This unit explores the complexities, constraints and debates surrounding the development policy process. It examines the process of making, implementing and/or evaluating development policy.

It also explores the politics surrounding development policy; the competing interests trying to influence the agenda and design of development solutions; how different political forces, ideas, religious values, and ideologies, policy instruments and institutional pressures, interact to shape the way in which policies are formulated, implemented and evaluated.

This unit draws on the body of classical writings on political and governance systems, the role governments play, and the legacy systems left by European governments in some countries after colonial rule, to develop a critical understanding of the contemporary debates and challenges facing sustainable development professionals working under a range of political systems and regulatory institutions.

This analysis would enable a deeper understanding of the political, cultural and regulatory impediments that hinder the development of morally conscious states.

This unit will critically evaluate the influence of ESG issues on shaping responsible organisation/business and finance operations (particularly SRF – socially responsible finance – and SRI – socially responsible investment). In addition, it examines how ESG issues can be employed with financial metrics to assess the risks and opportunities of responsible investment decisions.

This unit explores the philosophy, nature, rationale, mechanisms, procedures and practices of the UK corporate insolvency law. It critically discusses the role of corporate insolvency in establishing a delicate balance between the two seemingly contrary goals of business efficiency and the sustainability of the business at times of financial distress or crisis.

The unit examines the purposes of corporate insolvency law and the various rules and procedures for dealing with insolvent companies under the Insolvency Act 1986 and the subsequent insolvency legislation in terms of the three procedures available under the Act— liquidation, administration, and company voluntary arrangements.

This unit explains the extent and nature of the relationship between the concerned parties in the context of housing and the changes that have taken place in housing law in Scotland during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Scots law on housing has changed in many ways during this time, along with the rights of individuals to buy and rent housing.

While the housing industry suffers from homelessness, poor-quality housing and various forms of exploitation, most Scottish residents in the twenty-first century have far greater protection than their predecessors enjoyed at the start of the twentieth century. In addition to the constraints of the Rent Acts and the Housing Acts, there is now legislation to protect citizens from some forms of discrimination and abuse of their recognised human rights in this setting.