Gurnish Sidhu
Introduction
This unique Master’s examines both energy and environmental law and the ways in which they directly impact each another. During your studies, you’ll gain a valuable insight into this fast-developing, highly topical industry, and form a solid basis to forge a successful career in this field.
This programme is studied on campus.
Tapping into the growing need for lawyers with interdisciplinary knowledge, this programme will equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to operate effectively at the intersection of energy and environmental matters. Our programme produces lawyers that understand how environmental law affects the energy industry in its physical, technical, economic and political context. As growing energy demand coincides with the need to move away from fossil fuel dependence, law has a central role to play in enabling the shift to low carbon energy whilst maintaining energy security and the transition to environmentally sustainable economic development. With a unique choice of energy and environment courses such as Corporate Environmental Liability and Oil and Minerals for Good, you will benefit from an advanced understanding and sharpened critical analysis across many key areas, including the current position of energery and environmental laws and how these might change in the future. The programme covers matters of core interest for policy-makers, not only from an energy and environmental perspective but in all fields that provide the foundation for socio-economic functionality and corporate policy. The courses have been carefully designed collaboratively by teaching staff within the university and a range of key external contacts who have a direct role in the industry. This additional input ensures that the Master’s degree is aligned to industry competencies and needs, and you will benefit from the programme’s specific focus on intensive professional skills courses. The main difference with the LLM Energy and Environmental Law is the replacement of the dissertation with two intensive professional skills exercises.
Key Programme Information
At a Glance
- Learning Mode
- On Campus Learning
- Degree Qualification
- LLM
- Duration
- 12 months or 24 months
- Study Mode
- Full Time or Part Time
- Start Month
- January or September
Study Options
- LLM 12 months or 24 months On Campus Learning Full Time or Part Time January
-
- Semester 1
-
Semester 1
For January students, the first semester covers courses with the prefix LS55 and there is the compulsory course LS551T Critical Legal Thinking and Scholarship.
Compulsory Courses
- Critical Legal Thinking and Scholarship (LS551T)
-
This compulsory course provides students from diverse legal and educational backgrounds with a common understanding of the core research, analytical, and writing skills which would be required to excel in LLM-Taught courses. It commences with a few lectures and progresses to working in a workshop environment and finally to the submission of an individual assignment. It also incorporates elements such as library workshops to provide students with hands-on experience with the resources available for course and dissertation work.
Optional Courses
Four optional courses must be selected. Two should be selected from semester 1 and two from semester 3.
Alternatively, one of your four choices could be selected from another LLM programme (excluding LS501E, and LS551K).
- Principles of Environmental Regulation (LS551A) - 30 Credit Points
-
The purpose of this course is to introduce the main principles of environmental law. The course analyses the challenges of environmental protection from the perspective of international, European and national law. Besides the conceptual analysis of the main principles of environmental law and methods of regulation, the course focuses on the delicate interaction between the principles of economic law (e.g. the right to property, the protection of investments, free trade) and environmental protection. Is there a conflict between economic law and environmental law or are these fields of law mutually reinforcing?
- Low Carbon Energy Transition: Nuclear Energy and Carbon Capture and Storage (LS551J) - 30 Credit Points
-
Nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage are seen by some governments as key contributors alongside renewable energy to the decarbonisation of energy supplies. However, significant risks of harm to the environment and human health and challenges with securing investment and overcoming public concerns are associated with the use of both technologies. The seven seminar course examines legal responses to these risks and challenges at international, European Union and national levels, critically considering their adequacy for tackling the difficulties with employing nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage as part of a low carbon energy transition.
- Corporate Environmental Liability (LS551L) - 30 Credit Points
-
Corporate environmental liability is a significant area of concern not only for those corporations engaged in activities which exhibit environmental risk but society as whole. An efficient, effective liability regime must be present to ensure that corporations do not shirk their financial liabilities. The course 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 course focuses on EU environmental law, many of the concepts covered are relevant to other jurisdictions.
- Downstream Energy Law (LS5594) - 30 Credit Points
-
The transport and supply of hydrocarbons (oil and gas) and electricity is essential for modern civilisation. If energy cannot get to the consumer, then energy security is threatened and economic development may be restricted.
These challenges are important in the context of the liberalisation of these sectors, especially the restructuring of these industries from monopolies to competitive markets. This course explores the law and policy framework governing the movement and distribution of energy, particularly within a liberalised market, in an era of climate change. Topics covered include market liberalisation, energy security, gas sales and transport, and market regulation.
- International Investment Law and Arbitration In the Energy Sector (LS552P) - 30 Credit Points
-
The complex interaction between investment protection and the sovereign right of states to regulate has been most acute in the energy sector. On the one hand, investors require strong guarantees that states will respect the “rules of the game” that constitute the basis of their investments. On the other, states can be tempted to interfere with foreign energy investments because of their particular strategic and social importance. This course aims to analyse if existing investment disciplines are adapted to the specific regulatory risks that investors face in the energy landscape of the 21st Century.
- Semester 2
-
Semester 2
Students will need to take the Professional Skills module during the summer.
Compulsory Courses
- Energy and Environmental Law Professional Skills (LS5908) - 60 Credit Points
-
This course allows students the opportunity to deploy the knowledge they have gained in the taught courses on the LLM Energy and Environmental Law with Professional Skills programme in intensive exercises designed to develop their professional skills. It aims to provide students with an insight into specific processes which form the practical context for the legal and regulatory knowledge and skills gained during the taught courses. It also informs them about how the environmental regulatory context affects the planning of projects and the conduct of processes leading to their authorisation and implementation.
- Semester 3
-
Semester 3
For January starts semester 3 is the September semester with courses starting with LS50.
Optional Courses
- International Energy and Environmental Law (LS501C) - 30 Credit Points
-
The course deals with the regulation of international activities regarding energy and the environment. The course will consider the international legal framework regarding energy sources, and it will look at the various legal instruments at the global and regional level as well as the key actors that are involved in regulation. It will also examine environmental issues that correspond to the generation and use of energy in the international context and the responses relating to environmental protection of soil, water, air, atmosphere and species.
- Low Carbon Energy Transition: Renewable Energy Law (LS501H) - 30 Credit Points
-
A transition from reliance on fossil fuels to low-carbon renewable energy is essential for mitigating climate change and for making energy supplies more sustainable. The course considers the challenges and concerns that this fundamental change in the nature of energy supplies gives rise to, and explores laws role in addressing them. The course examines the legal regimes for promoting renewable energy at international, EU and UK levels, and considers how law can be used to address significant constraints on the growth of renewable energy including difficulties with grid access and public opposition to wind energy development.
- Oil and Mining Resources for Good (LS502Z) - 30 Credit Points
-
The course examines the relationship between law, energy and natural resources, ethics, governance and development at the national and international levels on the one hand and variable developmental outcomes, particularly the resource curse phenomenon, on the other hand. The course then proceeds to apply advanced academic and experiential knowledge to formulate the fundamentals for overarching legal frameworks that will enable the good exploitation and development of energy and natural resources, thereby producing enduring benefits for all key stakeholders.
- LLM 12 months or 24 months On Campus Learning Full Time or Part Time September
-
- Semester 1
-
Semester 1
The information listed below is for September start students. Information for January starts can be found under "Other Ways to Study".
All students must take two LS50xx courses and two LS55xx courses.
Compulsory Courses
All candidates must take:
- Critical Legal Thinking and Scholarship (LS501T)
-
This compulsory course provides students from diverse legal and educational backgrounds with a common understanding of the core research, analytical, and writing skills which would be required to excel in LLM-Taught courses. It commences with a few lectures and progresses to working in a workshop environment and finally to the submission of an individual assignment. It also incorporates elements such as library workshops to provide students with hands-on experience with the resources available for course and dissertation work.
Optional Courses
Four optional courses must be selected. Two should be selected from semester 1 and two from semester 2.
Alternatively, one of your four choices could be selected from another LLM programme (excluding LS501E, and LS551K).
- International Energy and Environmental Law (LS501C) - 30 Credit Points
-
The course deals with the regulation of international activities regarding energy and the environment. The course will consider the international legal framework regarding energy sources, and it will look at the various legal instruments at the global and regional level as well as the key actors that are involved in regulation. It will also examine environmental issues that correspond to the generation and use of energy in the international context and the responses relating to environmental protection of soil, water, air, atmosphere and species.
- Low Carbon Energy Transition: Renewable Energy Law (LS501H) - 30 Credit Points
-
A transition from reliance on fossil fuels to low-carbon renewable energy is essential for mitigating climate change and for making energy supplies more sustainable. The course considers the challenges and concerns that this fundamental change in the nature of energy supplies gives rise to, and explores laws role in addressing them. The course examines the legal regimes for promoting renewable energy at international, EU and UK levels, and considers how law can be used to address significant constraints on the growth of renewable energy including difficulties with grid access and public opposition to wind energy development.
- Oil and Mining Resources for Good (LS502Z) - 30 Credit Points
-
The course examines the relationship between law, energy and natural resources, ethics, governance and development at the national and international levels on the one hand and variable developmental outcomes, particularly the resource curse phenomenon, on the other hand. The course then proceeds to apply advanced academic and experiential knowledge to formulate the fundamentals for overarching legal frameworks that will enable the good exploitation and development of energy and natural resources, thereby producing enduring benefits for all key stakeholders.
- Semester 2
-
Semester 2
Optional Courses
- Principles of Environmental Regulation (LS551A) - 30 Credit Points
-
The purpose of this course is to introduce the main principles of environmental law. The course analyses the challenges of environmental protection from the perspective of international, European and national law. Besides the conceptual analysis of the main principles of environmental law and methods of regulation, the course focuses on the delicate interaction between the principles of economic law (e.g. the right to property, the protection of investments, free trade) and environmental protection. Is there a conflict between economic law and environmental law or are these fields of law mutually reinforcing?
- Low Carbon Energy Transition: Nuclear Energy and Carbon Capture and Storage (LS551J) - 30 Credit Points
-
Nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage are seen by some governments as key contributors alongside renewable energy to the decarbonisation of energy supplies. However, significant risks of harm to the environment and human health and challenges with securing investment and overcoming public concerns are associated with the use of both technologies. The seven seminar course examines legal responses to these risks and challenges at international, European Union and national levels, critically considering their adequacy for tackling the difficulties with employing nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage as part of a low carbon energy transition.
- Corporate Environmental Liability (LS551L) - 30 Credit Points
-
Corporate environmental liability is a significant area of concern not only for those corporations engaged in activities which exhibit environmental risk but society as whole. An efficient, effective liability regime must be present to ensure that corporations do not shirk their financial liabilities. The course 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 course focuses on EU environmental law, many of the concepts covered are relevant to other jurisdictions.
- Downstream Energy Law (LS5594) - 30 Credit Points
-
The transport and supply of hydrocarbons (oil and gas) and electricity is essential for modern civilisation. If energy cannot get to the consumer, then energy security is threatened and economic development may be restricted.
These challenges are important in the context of the liberalisation of these sectors, especially the restructuring of these industries from monopolies to competitive markets. This course explores the law and policy framework governing the movement and distribution of energy, particularly within a liberalised market, in an era of climate change. Topics covered include market liberalisation, energy security, gas sales and transport, and market regulation.
- Semester 3
-
Semester 3
Compulsory Courses
- Energy and Environmental Law Professional Skills (LS5908) - 60 Credit Points
-
This course allows students the opportunity to deploy the knowledge they have gained in the taught courses on the LLM Energy and Environmental Law with Professional Skills programme in intensive exercises designed to develop their professional skills. It aims to provide students with an insight into specific processes which form the practical context for the legal and regulatory knowledge and skills gained during the taught courses. It also informs them about how the environmental regulatory context affects the planning of projects and the conduct of processes leading to their authorisation and implementation.
Course Availability
We will endeavour to make all course options available; however, these may be subject to timetabling and other constraints. Please see our InfoHub pages for further information.
How You'll Study
Learning Methods
- Individual Projects
- Lectures
- Research
- Tutorials
Assessment Methods
- Assessment is based on a combination of continuous assessment and written examination at the end of the relevant semester.
- The variety of assessment in the programme - through essays, presentations, group and project work ensures that students apply theory to practise and become expert communicators and team players.
Why Study Energy and Environmental Law with Professional Skills?
Repeatedly ranked as one of the UK’s top Law Schools, we pride ourselves on delivering high quality, engaging and academically challenging programmes. But don't just take our word for it - we let the facts speak for themselves.
- Our Energy LLM is ranked in the top 10 globally by LLM Guide.
- The School of Law is ranked 5th in the UK for Law (The Complete University Guide 2019, The Times Good University Guide 2019), and based on the Times ranking is the highest ranked Scottish Law School.
- There are over 40 nationalities within the School of Law postgraduate community, therefore you will benefit from a programme with a truly international outlook.
Law at Aberdeen has been at the heart of legal education for over 500 years. At our university, you will:
- Gain interdisciplinary exposure, which is very important to practising lawyers.
- Understand the crucial interaction between energy and environmental law, particularly in relation to low carbon energy, which is a highly-prized topic today.
- Have the opportunity to study a programme that has been designed by experts in their field. The programme provides the ideal opportunity for professional development in specialist areas of law.
- Gain first-hand experience of aspects of professional practice in the field of your academic specialisation.
- Be part of a programme that has a focus on tangible, marketable employability skills that will enable you to get ahead in your career.
- Take advantage of real-world interactions and assignments that simulate what lawyers do day-to-day.
- Be taught by professionals, researchers and consultants with direct experience of mitigating against environmental harm in the North Sea oil and gas industry and beyond.
The programme is set against the background of Aberdeen’s reputation and knowledge as the Energy capital of Europe.
To help align your knowledge with a career path beyond, you’ll be supported by a comprehensive range of bespoke careers services and events, focused on providing you with the tools and additional skills you need to advance and transform your career potential.
What Our Students Say
Entry Requirements
Qualifications
The information below is provided as a guide only and does not guarantee entry to the University of Aberdeen.
Normally a 2(1) honours degree in Law (or another related discipline) or equivalent.
Relevant practical experience will also be beneficial.
Please enter your country to view country-specific entry requirements.
English Language Requirements
To study for a Postgraduate Taught degree at the University of Aberdeen it is essential that you can speak, understand, read, and write English fluently. The minimum requirements for this degree are as follows:
IELTS Academic:
OVERALL - 6.5 with: Listening - 5.5; Reading - 6.0; Speaking - 5.5; Writing - 6.0
TOEFL iBT:
OVERALL - 90 with: Listening - 17; Reading - 21; Speaking - 20; Writing - 21
PTE Academic:
OVERALL - 62 with: Listening - 51; Reading - 54; Speaking - 51; Writing - 54
Cambridge English Advanced & Proficiency:
OVERALL - 176 with: Listening - 162; Reading - 169; Speaking - 162; Writing - 169
Read more about specific English Language requirements here.
Document Requirements
You will be required to supply the following documentation with your application as proof you meet the entry requirements of this degree programme. If you have not yet completed your current programme of study, then you can still apply and you can provide your Degree Certificate at a later date.
- Degree Transcript
- a full transcript showing all the subjects you studied and the marks you have achieved in your degree(s) (original & official English translation)
- Personal Statement
- a detailed personal statement explaining your motivation for this particular programme
- Reference
- a reference letter from your university discussing your academic ability. If you have been out of education for a long time you may wish to use your current or most recent employer, or another professional person
International Applicants
Fees and Funding
You will be classified as one of the fee categories below.
- LLM 12 months or 24 months On Campus Learning Full Time or Part Time January
-
Fee Information
Fee information Fee category Cost Home / EU / RUK Students £7,800 Tuition Fees for 2018/19 Academic Year International Students £18,900 Tuition Fees for 2018/19 Academic Year Home / EU / RUK Students £8,200 Tuition Fees for 2019/20 Academic Year International Students £19,800 Tuition Fees for 2019/20 Academic Year - LLM 12 months or 24 months On Campus Learning Full Time or Part Time September
-
Fee Information
Fee information Fee category Cost Home / EU / RUK Students £8,200 Tuition Fees for 2019/20 Academic Year International Students £19,800 Tuition Fees for 2019/20 Academic Year
International non-EU Applicants
Further Information about tuition fees and the cost of living in Aberdeen
Additional Fees
- In exceptional circumstances there may be additional fees associated with specialist courses, for example field trips. Any additional fees for a course can be found in our Catalogue of Courses.
- For more information about tuition fees for this programme, including payment plans and our refund policy, please visit our InfoHub Tuition Fees page.
Funding Opportunities
The CB Davidson Fund provides limited financial support for postgraduate students within the Law School. It offers financial support to graduates in law from outside the UK to study in Aberdeen and to students and graduates of the University of Aberdeen who wish to travel outside of the UK for research purposes. Awards will not exceed £2,500 and in most instances will be less.
The closing dates for applications are 31 March and 30 September each year.
The SFC Postgraduate tuition fee scholarship may be available for those classified as Home/EU fee status students for this programme. Visit the scholarship page for more information.
The James Carnegie maintenance scholarship for postgraduate students is available with this degree.
Our Funding Database
View all funding options in our Funding Database.
Careers
The LLM in Energy and Environmental Law is more than a qualification - it’s potentially a passport to greater opportunity for both practising and aspiring lawyers and to those who want to pursue a career within national or multi-national energy companies. It provides the skills needed for those who might want to work within governmental or non-governmental organisations. The programme may also serve to engage those seeking a more academic career – perhaps forming part of the journey towards gaining a PhD.
Whatever drives you and on whichever side of the energy and environment debate you stand, it’s clear that both energy and environment have to work together. There’s no plan B. The whole world will have to invest in making this happen. So if you want a sustainable career, like we all want a sustainable world, here’s the place to start.
Our Experts
- Programme Coordinator
- Dr Olivia Woolley
Information About Staff Changes
You will be taught by a range of experts including professors, lecturers, teaching fellows and postgraduate tutors. Staff changes will occur from time to time; please see our InfoHub pages for further information.
Facilities
Taylor Library
The School of Law has its own dedicated law library, Taylor Library, which is located within the Law School building, offering access to the Law collection, Official Publications and the European Documentation Centre.
Get in Touch
Contact Details
- Address
-
School of Law
University of Aberdeen
Taylor Building
Aberdeen
AB24 3UB