UCL Laws LLB students delighted to get their Environmental Law final year essays published

ELM is a peer-reviewed journal that analyses the latest legal proposals and policies in reports, commentary and articles, providing a clear picture of current environmental regulation, government proposals and influential court decisions.

Cara’s article on ‘Semi-natural Grassland Decline: the Failings of Environmental Impact Assessment in England’, published in the Environmental Law and Management (2016, Volume 28, Issue 5), was based closely on an assessed undergraduate essay which she wrote for the Environmental Law course and which detailed the empirical research and advice work which Cara had carried out in partnership with the Environmental Law Foundation.

Cara said:

‘I particularly enjoyed conducting independent research for my LLB dissertation, as it was great to have the opportunity to write an extended piece of work, on a topic of interest, and put forward my own views.

Having my work published and knowing that my research would be shared across the legal community was very exciting. Beyond the mere fact of having my name published, it was nice to feel like the significance of my research had been recognised.’

This success follows Nick Grant’s (LLB Law, graduated 2013) publication of his undergraduate Environmental Law essay in the Environmental Law Review (2015, Volume 17, Issue 4), ‘Mandating Corporate Environmental Responsibility by Creating a New Directors’ Duty.’

Nick said:

‘Publishing my paper was a a very valuable experience. It taught me to critically examine my own work, probing for the weaknesses in everything I had written, and working to either resolve them, or re-think my thesis.

Having re-worked the essay for publication over a year after finishing it as an undergraduate essay, it also taught me the value of putting an idea in a box for a while, and approaching it again with fresh eyes. I’m very grateful to Professor Holder for her tireless support, and apparently endless capacity to re-read my drafts and ideas.’

Isaac Richardson (LLB, graduated 2016) is currently preparing his undergraduate essay on re-wilding natural areas for publication, having carried out subsequent fieldwork on this subject with Sussex Wildlife Trust.