Semester I

According to the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law, one of the requirements in achieving sustainable development is the accommodation, reconciliation and integration between the objectives of economic growth, social justice and environmental protection. While Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 makes frequent and direct references to the rule of law and access to justice, the other 16 SDGs, either expressly or impliedly, have also stressed the importance of law and governance, at both national and international level in providing a framework for achieving multiple targets of the SDGs.
While the course utilises the general concept of development, its particular aim is to engage students in academic discourses about the role and function of law and governance in achieving sustainable development. The course will be divided into three main sections:
1. Introduction to the concepts and theories of law and governance. This section will introduce to students, especially those new to the subject matter, important concepts and theories in law and governance that will be relevant to discussing and analysing sustainable development issues. This section will be presented in the first week of the course.
2. Discoursing Law and Development. This section delves deeper into the context and role of law in the issue of development. It considers the inter-disciplined links between law and social and economic development with a view to examine how law has contribute and can potentially contribute towards advancing sustainable development in the world. This section will be presented in the second week of the course.
3. Law and Governance in the Context of Sustainable Development. This section forms the main part of this course and will be provided between Weeks 3 to 6 of the course. It discusses how law has been utilised at the international, regional and national contexts in influencing, promoting and governing the agenda of sustainable development. The section is further divided into two parts: one that looks into the international and region context of law and governance on sustainable development and the other that reviews the various ways that individual nations have developed or adopted legal and governance framework on sustainable development.