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  Today Online 26 Oct 06
A wide scope of legal study NUS'
multifaceted curriculum includes environmental law
Letter from Dr Victor V Ramraj
Associate Professor & Vice-Dean, Academic Affairs, Faculty of Law,
National University of Singapore

Today Online 24 Oct 06
Environmental law essential for future
Letter from Maryanne Maes

I AM pleased to hear of Singapore Management University's (SMU) proposal to have 40 per cent of its law course comprising of non-law subjects (Oct 23). There could not be a better time to do so.

While I am not a lawyer, I recognise that SMU's new approach will give its students an edge in understanding Singapore's legal landscape better than their conventionally-educated counterparts.

On this note, I would also like to strongly recommend to SMU to consider incorporating Environmental Law into its syllabus.

We are now witnessing man-made environmental upheavals everywhere. As environmental awareness grows, so will the public's realisation of their right to a healthy environment.

I foresee a rise of lawsuits in the future from the common man seeking damages from corporations which have lapsed in their environmental practices, or even lawsuits arising from possible lapses in the current environmental policies in Singapore.

This future is probably not too far off, considering the rapid expansion of businesses in Singapore versus the close physical proximity between residents and industries.

It's time to give the environment a stronger voice in the legal system to protect the welfare of the people.

Today Online 26 Oct 06
A wide scope of legal study NUS' multifaceted curriculum includes environmental law
Letter from Dr Victor V Ramraj
Associate Professor & Vice-Dean, Academic Affairs, Faculty of Law,
National University of Singapore

I refer to Maryanne Maes' letter on teaching environmental law (Oct 24).

Ms Maes will be pleased to know that environmental law has been taught at the NUS Faculty of Law for more than ten years now. In fact, there have been no less than five environmental law modules delving into Singapore, Asian and international environmental law and policy.

These are all taught within our law curriculum, and we prefer not to view them as "non-law" subjects.

Law is a dynamic subject drawing from other disciplines. We believe in incorporating inter-disciplinary perspectives into our law courses as much as possible, rather than simply drawing distinctions between law and other subjects.

In addition, the NUS Law Faculty had established the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL) as far back as 1996 to teach and research into environmental law and policy.

Here, we were driven by the twin considerations of contributing to the wider community while developing an area of expertise that may become important to legal practice in future.

We agree with Ms Maes on the importance of environmental law, and hope all law schools will teach the subject.

But addressing the profound changes in our environment, and acquiring the skills to address these and other pressing social issues, requires a broad understanding of law from a diversity of perspectives including the wider social, economic, corporate, public policy, and transnational contexts.

We help students acquire this understanding through the diversity of subjects offered in our law curriculum as well as through double degree programmes in Law and Economics, Law and Business, and Law and Public Policy (and others to come).

As Singapore's only comprehensive law school, we also equip our students with the analytical skills they need to think critically and independently about the issues, as well as the communication skills they need to make their learning effective in practice.

This dimension of their education begins as early as their first year, particularly through the Legal Analysis, Writing and Research programme led by Associate Professor Eleanor Wong that not only fosters independent thinking, but recognises research and reasoning skills as critical components of a lawyer's education.

Such a pedagogical approach to teaching and learning is an integral part of the NUS law school's educational culture.

We would thus like to assure Ms Maes that our law graduates have the skills and the sophisticated perspective they need to take on the pressing challenges of our time, of which environmental degradation is certainly one.
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