IMAGINE

“The rules of our world are laws, and they can be changed. Laws can restrict or they can enable. What matters is what they serve. Many of the laws in our world serve property - they are based on ownership. But imagine a law that has a higher moral authority... a law that puts people and planet first. Imagine a law that starts from first do no harm, that stops this dangerous game and takes us to a place of safety...” - Polly Higgins, 2015.

IMAGINE is an event for students in their final year of study. In it we challenge students to ‘hack’ one of the biggest challenges of them all: the environmental crisis. Designed in conjunction with The Chancery Lane Project, we enable students to imagine how law and policy could be changed to protect the environment and enable environmental recovery, in workshops and with guided reading throughout their final term with us. At the end, students bring their ideas for change to the IMAGINE conference where over the course of a few days they create viable proposals for reform, with the help of inspirational speakers and expert workshops.

IMAGINE forms part of the final year modules LAW3017C Land Law (a core module on the LLB Law with Business) and LAW3016C A Legal Response to Environmental Destruction (taken by students from across campus, including those studying on a law programme). IMAGINE will run for the first time in the academic year 2021-22.

‘We believe the law is the most effective lever for climate action. The environmental crisis is too big to be addressed bottom-up. We believe that to deliver change at the rate at which it is needed, there needs to be industry transformation and governments have to be held to account. And to do this you need the law.’ Client Earth