Description

Session 1 : Overview of Environmental Law and Policy
Trainer : LYE Lin Heng

This session aims to give the audience a multi-disciplinary introduction to environmental law, policy, governance and management. It addresses the importance of land use planning, institutions & agencies, the building of the environmental infrastructure, laws & enforcement, and respect for the rule of law.

Session 2 : Introduction to International Environmental Law
Trainer : Jolene LIN

An introduction to the key multilateral environmental agreements concerning biodiversity conservation, hazardous waste, ozone-depleting substances and climate change (to name a few). The speaker will elaborate on key concepts and principles that underpin these international legal frameworks and how these international laws are implemented in Singapore.

Session 3 : Pollution Control Laws in Singapore
Trainer : LYE Lin Heng

An overview of the laws relating to the control and management of the quality of air and water, as well as noise pollution. It also examines the management of wastes and toxic substances in Singapore.

Session 4 : Biodiversity Law – Conservation, Access and Benefit Sharing”
Trainer : Burton ONG

An overview of the international legal norms governing the protection and exploitation of non-human biological resources which all ASEAN member states have committed themselves to implementing in their national laws. This session will also explore the intersection between international environmental law and intellectual property law in the context of bioprospecting and biopiracy.

Convenor & Trainer’s Profiles

Convenor – Associate Professor Jolene LIN
NUS Law

Jolene graduated in law from London School of Economics. She holds a Masters degree in law from New York University and a PhD. in law from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Jolene is director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law.

Jolene’s main areas of expertise are climate change law and transnational environmental law. She has published in leading international journals including the European Yearbook of International Law and Legal Studies. Her book, Governing Climate Change: Global Cities and Transnational Lawmaking, will be published by Cambridge University Press in May 2018. Her current research projects focus on climate change litigation, the role of planning law regimes in addressing climate change at the city level, and the role of cities and other subnational actors in global environmental governance.

Amongst her international appointments, Jolene is a member of the advisory board for the University of Strathclyde’s LLM in Climate Change Law and Policy and a member of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law’s Research Committee. She is a member of the International Law Association’s study group on “The Role of Cities in International Law”. Jolene is also on the editorial boards of: Journal of Environmental Law, Chinese Journal of Environmental Law, and Climate Law.

Before joining NUS, Jolene was associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong where she also served as Associate Dean of International Affairs (2014-2016) and Director of the faculty’s student exchange program (2008 -2016). Jolene was also a member of the Appeal Tribunal Panel (Building Ordinance) and the Appeal Board Panel (Town Planning) in Hong Kong. Jolene has served as consultant to the Hong Kong Department of Justice, international NGOs, the United Nations Environment Programme, and global law firms. Apart from her research and teaching in environmental law, Jolene firmly believes in the power of individual and community action to protect our environment. She is a founding member and nonexecutive director of Urban Spring Pte Ltd, a company that aims to reduce plastic waste by building a water refill network in Hong Kong and beyond.

Associate Professor LYE Lin-Heng
NUS Law

Lye Lin-Heng graduated in law from the University of Singapore, and holds Masters degrees in law from the University of London (King’s College) and Harvard University. She is an Advocate & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore and was Director of the Law Faculty’s Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL) from 2013-17. She was Vice-Dean and Director of the Faculty’s Graduate Programme from 1995-1998. She chairs the University’s Inter-Faculty Programme Management Committee in the multi-disciplinary Masters in Environmental Management (MSc (Env Mgt)) programme, hosted by the School of Design and Environment, which has the collaboration of nine faculties/schools in NUS. She is a member of the Land Titles (Strata) Board, and was a former board member of the Housing Development Board. She is a member of the Technical Committee on National Drinking Water Quality Standards, National Environment Agency, Ministry of Environment and Water Resources. She was honorary advisor to Singapore’s oldest NGO, the Nature Society, for many years and is now a member of the Board of Directors, WWF Singapore. She was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2016.

She teaches Property Law, Environmental Law and Comparative Environmental Law. She is Visiting Associate Professor at Yale University’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She has written on Singapore’s property laws and environmental laws and is lead editor of the series Environmental Matters, published by World Scientific; as well as co-editor of Comparative Environmental Law & Regulation, published by Thomson-Reuters Westlaw in the US.

She was a member of the Board of Governors of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, and co-chair of its Teaching and Capacity-Building Committee. She is a resource person in capacity-building programs conducted by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Ministry of Environment, Singapore.

Associate Professor Burton ONG
NUS Law

Dr Burton Ong obtained his undergraduate and graduate legal training at the National University of Singapore and Oxford University, where he was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal and the Vinerian Scholarship, as well as at Harvard Law School. He teaches and researches in the areas of Contract Law, Competition Law and Intellectual Property Law, with a special interest in biodiversity law. He is the co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Biodiversity and the Law (2018) and is an executive committee member of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law. He is the Director of the NUS Law Faculty’s Continuing Legal Education Committee, which facilitates training and capacity-building programmes for both legally-trained and non-legally-trained audiences.