Law on Trial 2025 The Changing Landscape of UK Environmental Law
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street
Law on Trial 2025
Panel 1: The Changing Landscape of UK Environmental Law
16th June 2025 18:00-20:00, Birkbeck College, Malet St Main Building, Room 153
Law on Trial takes place as world events appear to be taking a particularly dark turn. Perhaps we find ourselves at the boundaries of old paradigms, which may (or may not) open onto new frontiers. With this problem comes the question of hope and renewal- surely not givens- but challenges to keep thinking in rigorous ways; and in ways that do not collapse into ‘post truth’ and ‘relativism’. Such terms are incapable of helping us when we need positions based on the best possible interpretation of the available evidence. In the frame at this year’s law on trial are the ongoing climate crisis, the degradation of the environment and the consequences of this for humanity’s relationships with the natural world and each other. Equally relevant is the ongoing concern with decolonisation. The decolonisation of the cosmos. Is outer space the last commons? If it is, it needs to be saved from the tech bros and their fantasies of settlements on Mars. The guiding theme is the need for critical thinking about what we are losing or have already lost. Environmental degradation is inherently linked to poverty, privatisation and attacks on human welfare; public access to housing provides a focus for this theme. If there was a common concern running through the various panels, it would be this: we need to argue for the most expanded notion of the common good: a good that includes the flourishing of human and other than human beings. Not least is the question of how we understand economy – and it may very well be the case that we must revisit notions of political economy to re-fashion the tools necessary for well informed, critical and evidence driven thinking.
This first panel addresses the changing landscape of UK environmental law. New legislation and regulatory approaches are emerging, responding to both the gaps and opportunities created by the country’s separation from the EU. Changes in the UK’s physical landscapes are also occurring, as a result of ecological degradation and the deliberate choices of decision-makers at both local and national levels.
The panel will present three case studies on these shifting legal and natural landscapes, and consider what these tell us about whether the UK is meeting contemporary environmental crises. The talks will cover the implications of the UK’s move towards an outcome-oriented model of environmental regulation; the UK’s contribution to the co-evolution of animal and environmental law as distinct but overlapping regulatory fields; and how the construct of the UK as a coherent regulatory space might be realigned to reflect that it is also a coherent ecological space.
Speakers
Professor Jane Holder, University College London, “Animal Ethics in Environmental Law”
Dr. Olivia Hamlyn, Birkbeck College, “If it ain’t broke, fix it: the UK’s new regime for environmental assessment”
Dr. Rob Amos, Birkbeck College, “Charting the Evolution of Ecological Coherence as a Normative Legal Concept”
Contact name: Adam Gearey
Speakers- Dr Olivia Hamlyn
- Dr Rob Amos
- Professor Jane Holder
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