Law and Economics of the Environment

ECON‑S467 offers an interdisciplinary exploration of how legal frameworks and economic principles jointly shape environmental policy and environmental governance. Grounded in both law and economics, the course equips students with the analytical tools needed to understand why environmental degradation occurs, how societies can respond through policy design, and what institutional arrangements help reconcile economic activity with planetary boundaries.

Part I: Concepts and tools from law and economics
The course begins by setting the conceptual foundations: students examine why environmental issues generate persistent controversy (“hot law”), the structural role of rights and institutions, and the normative principles that guide policy‑making, such as the polluter‑pays, precaution, and prevention principles. On the economic side, students learn how classical and modern economic analysis conceptualizes nature. Key concepts include market failures, externalities, public goods, and the insights from integrated assessment models and microeconomic modelling.

Building on these foundations, the course introduces a systematic taxonomy of environmental policy instruments, spanning command‑and‑control regulation, market‑based instruments, information tools, hybrid mechanisms, and new forms of governance including collaborative regulation. 

Part II: Environmental liability and litigation:
A further component examines environmental liability—civil, statutory, strict, and fault‑based—and its role in incentivizing prevention, remediation, and alignment with the polluter‑pays principle, and its flip side, environmental litigation, in its dimensions including strategic litigation, access to justice, and how litigation shapes behaviors.

Part III: The international dimension
The last part of the course focuses on the European Union as a global climate regulator, with the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) as an example of how the EU uses access to its market as a way to influence third countries' regulatory choices. We will analyse this instrument from an economic and a environmental law perspective, and look at its impact on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

Lectures are enriched with current policy debates and case studies, including REDD+, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, low‑emission zones, EU ETS II, and litigation strategies in climate governance. Guest lectures and external events complement the academic content with real‑world perspectives.

At the end of the course participants should have:

- Knowledge of the economic principles and tools, as well as their interaction with legal rules and institutional processes that govern current policy responses to environmental challenges;

- Develop a critical understanding of the different economic, legal, regulatory and policy instruments/approaches available to address environmental issues and their pros and cons;

-  Understand the tensions, debates and issues in law and economics that surround environmental policy, drawing specific examples from the European Union; when appropriate

This course will combine lectures and case study discussions. Students are expected to prepare for each class and to contribute to class discussion.

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

All references will be available either on the uv or in the library. 

Course notes

• Université virtuelle

Contacts

Chiara Armeni
chiara.armeni@ulb.be

Estelle Cantillon
estelle.cantillon@ulb.be

Campus

Solbosch

Method(s) of evaluation

• Oral presentation
• Other
• Written report

Oral presentation

Other

Written report

Students will be evaluated on the basis of their case study analysis and class participation.

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

The final grade will be based on a written group project and presentation thereof (80% of the final grade) and class participation (20%). Students failing the course will be asked to pass an oral exam and resubmit a written case in August (80% of the final grade), keeping their participation grade as is.

Language(s) of evaluation

• english