Mission statement

The aim of the Environment & Threats Strategic Research Area is to promote, foster and undertake research and postgraduate study that will enable us to better understand key environmental threats facing society by working with a multidisciplinary team to devise solutions to these threats that takes into account their scientific, legal, economic, health and wellbeing, and political aspects.

Environmental threats include the consequences of polluting activities and the prevention of harm. These threats pose questions with regard to the search for appropriate scientific, economic, legal and political solutions.

The nature of environmental harm can be deeply deceptive. In particular, remote external hazards can be hard to accommodate within normal legal regimes and timeframes. Generally the law works effectively by applying justice based on notions, operating through recognised rights and obligations frameworks.

From the outside it may seem that the problems that are encountered in the field of environmental law are simply conflicts between different interest groups. This perspective is far from the truth, as key issues in environmental law cross boundaries between science, economics and political science.

These issues include sustainable development - particularly in the light of global warming and climate change - the regulation of agencies, and the influence of EU and international law on the UK's environmental law. Sustainable development sets the challenge of protecting the environment and of securing the market economy. How to reconcile economic growth and sustainable environmental policies is the challenge of our time.

To get involved with our research, please contact us by email: [email protected]

Research group staff

Conveners

  • Dr Sulaf Assi

Current Postgraduate Researchers

  • Molly Bridger
  • Rina Cindrad
  • Jaspreet Kaur (PhD)
  • Roxanne King
  • Joseph McMullen
  • Jack Olley

Completed Postgraduate Researchers

  • Yankun Zhou
  • Qianqian Wei
  • Jennie Farmer
  • Pauline Belloni
  • Celine Invernizzi
  • Rupert Cope
  • Merve Demir
  • Thomas Coombs
  • Andrew Butt
  • Hannah Bowen

Researchers

  • Simon Dunstan
  • Laura Higgs-White
  • Lenette Pellow
  • Karla Mortensen
  • Peter Lewis