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Environmental Law

A deep look and clear insights into environmental law in Canada.

If you are interested in breathing clean air, drinking clean water, saving endangered species, or addressing climate change, then you are interested in environmental law in Canada! Learn from one of Canada’s leading figures in environmental law in this accessible, but comprehensive, course.

This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of environmental law, regulation, and policy at the provincial and federal levels in Canada.

Students will examine how governments, industry, landowners and the public have attempted to prevent, minimize or mitigate environmental degradation and natural resource depletion.

Topics covered in the course modules include: air and water pollution; environmental litigation; toxic chemicals and pesticides; environmental assessment; climate change; biodiversity conservation; species at risk; parks and protected areas; land use planning; non-regulatory approaches; and Indigenous rights.

Course Learning Outcomes (CLO)

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

Analyze and interpret key federal and provincial environmental laws and regulatory frameworks, demonstrating understanding of their legal foundations and policy objectives.
Evaluate the development, evolution, and limitations of environmental law in Canada, including its historical, political, and ethical dimensions.
Apply statutory, common law, and voluntary legal tools to assess how environmental issues are addressed in real-world contexts, including litigation and policy responses.
Evaluate the ethical and legal dimensions of environmental law as they relate to Indigenous rights, environmental justice, and public participation, and communicate informed perspectives on reconciliation and rights-based approaches to law and policy.

Course Offering (may be subject to change)

Environmental Law (LAW 709) will be offered in January 2026, and will initially only be available as a 700-level course. To register, you must be a student in the Certificate in Law and can add course through SOLUS.

The 200-level version, available as an elective for Queen’s full-time undergraduate students, will be introduced in September 2026.

Assessment Weighting (may be subject to change)

ASSESSMENT TOOL	WEIGHT
Final Assessment	40%
Written Assignment	30%
Discussion Posts	18% (6 posts, 3% each)
Weekly quizzes	12% (12 quizzes, 1% each)

Course Materials

Paul Muldoon & Julie Williams, An Introduction to Environmental Law and Policy in Canada, Fourth Edition (Toronto: Emond Montgomery Publications Limited, 2025). The softcopy and eTextbook can be purchased from Emond Publishing.

Other readings as detailed in the course syllabus (available upon enrolment)

Textbook Buying Options

Softcover - $87.00 (non-returnable) or $97.00 (returnable)

eTextbook - $78.00 (lifetime access) or $69.00 (1-year rental)

Law 709

Instructor

Richard Lindgren

Richard Lindgren, B.A. (w.Dist.), LL.B., is a staff lawyer at the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA), which is a specialty legal aid clinic based in Toronto. After graduating from Queen’s Faculty of Law, he joined CELA in 1986 and represents individuals, public interest groups, and First Nations before tribunals and in trial and appellate courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. His casework focuses on air and water pollution, environmental rights, environmental assessment, and administrative and constitutional law. In addition, he was co-counsel for Walkerton residents at the Walkerton Inquiry. He served as a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee on Class Action Reform, the Environment Minister's Task Force on the Environmental Bill of Rights, and the Environment Minister’s Advisory Panel on Environmental Assessment. He has frequently appeared as a witness before standing committees of the Ontario Legislature and Parliament in relation to new or amended environmental statutes. He has written extensively on matters of environmental law and policy, and he has been a co-editor of the Canadian Environmental Law Reports since 1994. He has taught environmental law at Queen's Faculty of Law and Trent University.

More about Richard Lindgren