Courses

In addition to our research we deliver high quality teaching that will equip young lawyers for legal practice, specialising in rural issues.    

The University of Aberdeen School of Law offers a range of courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as courses for professional development, which utilise the skills of the Rural Law Research Group and address key issues for rural law.    

Our LLB Honours Rural Law course addresses agricultural tenancies, crofting law, access rights and community rights of acquisition under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and National Parks.    

We offer an LLM Programme in Law and Sustainable Development, which includes modules on Renewable Energy Law, International Planning Law, Principles of Environmental Regulation and Sustainable Development and Law. This programme dovetails with the work of our forthcoming Centre for Energy Law and our LLM Programme in Oil and Gas Law.    

    

Undergraduate Teaching    

Rural Law (Honours)
A seminar based course which addresses topics relevant to the regulation and administration of rural Scotland. This includes rural planning, land reform and access.    

Renewable Energy Law (Honours)    

Environmental Law (Honours)    

Planning Law (Honours)
A seminar based course that considers the regulation of land use planning in Scotland and the legal and policy context in which it operates.    

    

Postgraduate Teaching    

LLM in Climate Change Law and Sustainable Development  

   

Climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge of our time and there is widespread agreement that the international community and nation states must act now to mitigate and adapt to the causes and consequences of climate change. Sustainable development has become established as a leading principle of international law, although its detailed definition and precise legal status remain matters of some contention. Its value, from a legal perspective, is arguably in ensuring that procedural mechanisms are in place (environmental impact assessment, access to environmental information and public participation in decision-making) to assist in the deliberative processes which seek to address the delicate balance to be drawn between social and economic development and environmental protection. The link between sustainable development and international climate change law is clearly seen in the origins of the International Framework Convention on Climate Change as one of the lasting and significant outcomes of the Rio Declaration, which has laid the foundations for the development of sustainable development as a legal principle. The courses offered within this LLM programme will enable students to focus on the legal framework for tackling climate change at international, regional and national levels; to consider the significance of the principle of sustainable development; and to consider the implications of both these issues within specific contexts.  

  •  Climate Change Law and Policy
  • Sustainable Development and Law
  • Marine and Spatial Planning
  • Oil and Gas Law
  • The Evolution of International Law in a World of Crisis
  • Intellectual Property, Human Rights and Development
  • Renewable Energy Law

The aim of this course is to develop a critical appreciation of some current issues in the field of Renewable Energy Law. The course will cover inter alia: the consent procedures for the different forms of renewable energy in the UK; the policy commitments at international, European and UK level and how those policy commitments are translated into the UK regulatory system; the relationship with other rural development issues such as landownership, tenancy and the planning system; and the environmental impacts of renewable energy schemes and the means of regulating those environmental impacts within and outwith the consents procedure (including conditions of consents and the role of Environmental Impact Assessment). 

  • Principles of Environmental Regulation

      

For details please see the School of Law webpages.