Of Density and Decline: State of the Nation Reflections on the Teaching of Environmental Law in the UK

Abstract

In this paper, we use data from the top 100 UK law school websites and survey responses from environmental law scholars to show a decline in the provision of environmental law teaching in the UK and stasis in student numbers over time. We explore perceptions that environmental law is soft, asking if this is because environmental law scholars are seen as liberal ‘tree huggers’ and/or because environmental law is thought to be more about values than about law. We look at employability as a mission of modern universities, asking if studying environmental law at university can only ever be a ‘nice to have’ in this context. And we look at the feminisation over time in those who teach environmental law, asking if this says something broader about our discipline. We ask more questions than we can answer, but hope this piece is the start of an important debate.