Bachelor course “Global and EU Environmental Law and Policy”

Global and EU Environmental Law and Policy course

Armed with a fresh set of enthusiasm, and pens, I entered the classroom ten minutes early and took a seat in the middle. Once the rest of the class had trickled in, a woman walked in and took her place in the front of the class. She started speaking quickly in perfect English.

 

The last part of the previous sentence is important. Though the bachelor’s course I am taking in Wageningen is in English. I did find that a lot of my professors and courses employed a language I like to call ‘Dunglish’. Having a professor have such a good command over the language did make me sit up a bit straighter and listen a bit more intently.

source: https://ssc.wur.nl/Handbook/Course/LAW-22306#OpleidingTable

When I was 13 years old, I remember I watched a life-changing movie. It was called Erin Brockovich and it portrayed the story of a woman determined to bring justice to the people of a neighborhood whose water had been contaminated by a large corporation. She went from nothing to becoming a famous and persistent legal advocate. She inspired me to want to know more about environmental law.

 

The professor that was going to be teaching us Global and EU Environmental Law & Policy (I will abbreviate it GEELP for convenience). A bit mouthy, I know but true to every word. The course teaches you the theory and history of Environmental Law and policy mainly in Europe with some emphasis on the United States and China as well.

In other words, this course would help me live out my thirteen-year-old self’s Erin Brockovich dream.

It’s a 6-credit course taught in period 3 and runs for the whole day. The contact hours are not that brutal which makes it a tad more bearable for a tropical girl in the winter month of January.

 

The teaching style is through lectures. Let me correct that. The teaching style is through incredibly well-taught lectures. As someone who really enjoys learning, my teacher plays a huge role in how much I enjoy a course. Professor Josephine Van Zebben, who newly teaches this course does a phenomenal job of making the long and arduous legal process seem like a sunny walk in the park. She is extremely passionate about what she is teaching and that makes a huge difference.

I would recommend this course to anyone who likes to learn about law in general and the laws that govern so many pressing environmental issues today. Not a lot of courses at Wageningen University focus so strongly on the judicial process but this is a great opportunity to learn about environmental problem solving through a different lens.

 

About the test

The exam as of 2020 was a multiple-choice that didn’t fit with the teaching style, but the course coordinator is looking into changing it to a mix between multiple choice and open questions. I feel this will give more room to provide accurate answers and show what has been learned during the course.

 

Provided material

Though there is a lot of course material, it is not expected of students to know a lot of dates and extremely specific facts but to have a broader understanding of the course material and apply legal knowledge to an environmental issue.

 

All in all, GEELP has been one of my favorite courses during my bachelor years because I was encouraged to fuel my passion for learning and for the environment through the passion of the professor! There is a lot of room open for discussion and the lectures are lively and active. It is also a great opportunity to get some extra sleep during the dark winter days :).

 

 

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