SOAS Law, Environment and Development Centre

The Law, Environment and Development Centre (LEDC) of the School of Law seeks to provide a focal point to expand the increasing interest in the dynamic relationships between the fields of law, environment and development. The main goal of the Centre is to advance research and teaching, and explore the role each of these disciplines plays in realising the sustainable development and natural resource use, particularly in the South. LEDC adopts multidisciplinary approaches in researching key issues in environmental law and development today; including, water, land use, forests, climate change, intellectual property and indigenous peoples rights. LEDC undertakes research in various areas of environmental law of contemporary relevance. LEDC 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.