Natural Resources Law

The mining and natural resources industries are central to the Australian economy. The industries depend heavily on exports and are exposed to the volatile pricing of commodities in international markets. Australian companies are active in exploration and production throughout the world and particularly in developing countries. They are thus subject to international trends that neither country can control, but that will shape the future course of all natural resource industries.

The course will be taught in a framework which problematizes the Enlightenment approach to the natural world as a thing eminently available for exploitation. It will examine this approach in light of ‘green’ post-Enlightenment philosophies such as radical ecology, anthropocentric philosophy, rights of nature and earth jurisprudence and indigenous world views. It will ask what contribution if any positivist law can make to reshape a post-Enlightenment approach given the fundamental challenges of climate change and environmental damage.

This course will introduce participants to the broad regulatory framework applicable to natural resource industries in Australia with occasional comparisons to the Canadian responses to similar problems. The framework will consider the framework against the background of the overriding global challenges of climate change and indigenous rights, which will inevitably affect the future of natural resource industries in both countries. The course will focus in particular on the regulatory regimes that apply to mining, hydrocarbon production, forestry and water resources and how industries can cope with emerging challenges.