Webinar Report: Environmental law and Environmental Jurisprudence

Title of the Webinar: Environmental law and Environmental Jurisprudence

Hosted by: Centre for Environmental Legal Research and Action, Niti Manthan

Date: 8th September 2020

Objectives of the Event:

1. The basics of Environmental Laws.
2. The legal situation in India pertaining to laws dealing with environmental issues.
3. The scientific considerations to be made while envisioning the Environmental laws for India.
4. The impact of the constitution on the environment legislations.
5. The relationship between environment and Jurisprudence.

Speaker Profile:

Mr Charan Tej, Assistant Professor at the School of Law, Christ. He also has extensive experience practising for the NGT.

EVENT REPORT:

The webinar was scheduled to be held on Monday, 8 September 2020, 4 PM Onwards was attended by 25 participants, and commenced on time without any delays. The Webinar was structured into 2 halves. The first half is a 45-50 minutes lecture, delivered by Mr Charan Tej. The last 25 minutes were dedicated to a Question and Answer session to answer the questions posed by the interns of Niti Manthan.

Mr Tej commenced the discussion by introducing the topic and briefing about the approach he will be using. He followed a two-fold approach for his presentation. The former having a succinct discussion on environmental law and the latter having a brief discussion of environmental Jurisprudence. He elaborated on all the sources of environmental laws in India, which include: Constitution, Judicial verdicts, statutes, and delegated legislation. After thoroughly discussing all the sources and the use of laws, principles, and duties under these sources with contemporary examples, Mr Tej also put some light on the various landmark judgments which formed the basis of Environmental Laws in India. He further highlighted some ‘influencer’ i.e. which affect the law-making, such as triggers, committee reports, and protests, etc by using some contemporary examples. He also expressed his views on how the criminalization of politics and the politicization of criminals affect lawmaking. In the later part of the discussion, he put some emphasis on the environmental jurisprudence by talking about his experiences in the field. He concluded his lecture by talking about public interest litigation and recent environmental activism around the country.

The Question and Answer session was very productive as the interns, as well as the core committee members, asked very relevant and thought-provoking questions and Mr Tej replied to the questions passionately and provided valuable insights.

Conclusion:

The session was very helpful and the material of the lecture was very succinct, informative, and illuminating. The speaker used well-researched references and relatable metaphors that made the session enthralling. The webinar helped the new interns have a better understanding of the practical application of environmental law. The lecture was a well-structured and great success.

Recording of the webinar can now be accessed at Niti Manthan's Youtube Page -

[The author of this report, Aastha Chawla is a student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab and a research intern with Niti Manthan CELRA in their skill development initiative under Niti Manthan Phase 3 of Summer School 2020]