Law, Environment and Development Centre

The Law, Environment and Development Centre (LEDC) investigates the dynamic relationships between the fields of law, environment and development.

The Law, Environment and Development Centre (LEDC) based in the College of Law provides a focal point to expand the increasing interest in the dynamic relationships between the fields of law, environment and development. Its main goal of the centre is to advance research and teaching and explore the role each of these disciplines play in realising sustainable development and natural resource use, particularly in the Global South. 

LEDC adopts multidisciplinary approaches in researching key issues in environmental law and development today; including, water, land use, forests, climate change, intellectual property, rights of nature and indigenous peoples rights. LEDC undertakes research in various areas of environmental law of contemporary relevance. Its research focuses in particular on topics of relevance to the South and to North-South relations.

LEDC currently co-hosts the European Research Council (ERC) project Addressing the Multi-scalar Dimensions of Sectoral Water Conflicts: Lessons from South Asia (WATCON), which has received funding from UKRI under the UKRI Frontier Research grants scheme.

Prof. Philippe Cullet and Dr Birsha Ohdedar welcome enquiries for PhD supervision in their areas of expertise.

The Law, Environment and Development Centre undertakes research in various areas of environmental law of contemporary relevance. The centre's research focuses in particular on topics of relevance to the South and to North-South relations:

• Biodiversity: access and benefit sharing; equity; farmers' rights; intellectual property rights; traditional knowledge.
• Biosafety: biotechnology, in particular agro-biotechnology in the South; precautionary principle; liability regimes.
• Climate change: common but differentiated responsibility; Clean Development Mechanism, emissions trading.
• Forests: governance, biodiversity, energy, forest users rights and trade.
• Natural resources: land; mining, plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; multinational companies.
• Sanitation: right to sanitation, wastewater, manual scavenging and sewage workers; gender.
• Water: right to water, groundwater, governance and institutions; environment; regulation and privitisation.

The LEDC convenes the SOAS Environmental Justice Clinic, which provides students at SOAS with the opportunity to engage directly in public interest legal and policy work at the intersection of environmental protection and human rights. The Clinic enables students to build their research, writing, and policy advocacy skills by contributing to ongoing campaigns, legal interventions, and collaborative research projects both globally and within the UK.

Working closely with partner organisations such as Environmental Law Foundation (ELF), Client Earth, and The Wildlife Trusts, students have contributed to a wide variety of initiatives. These have included assisting in policy campaign work to urge UK local authorities to act on their climate emergency declarations, and supporting public interest cases that aim to hold decision-makers accountable for environmental and social harms. Students have also worked on international legal advocacy, such as contributing to submissions urging the International Criminal Court to recognise the environment as a direct victim of international crimes.

Alongside policy-focused projects, the Clinic has supported practical research and mapping exercises, for example, documenting the presence of UK-protected species along the River Ouse in Sussex. In collaboration with Lawyers for Nature, students have also undertaken comparative research on representation models for Nature, such as guardianship frameworks used in New Zealand and Spain, as part of broader efforts to explore how legal systems can advance the recognition of the rights of Nature.

Through these diverse projects, the Clinic creates a platform for SOAS students, both postgraduate and undergraduate, to apply their academic knowledge in real-world contexts, while contributing to the wider movement for environmental justice and transformative legal change.

More information about current projects can be found here.