The role of higher education in the development of environmental legal attitudes

Abstract

This research was born from the need to cultivate environmental awareness among law students, who will have the responsibility of safeguarding the environment through legislation. The main objective of the study was to examine the attitudes towards the environment of law students and teachers in the university context of the city of Encarnación, Paraguay, in order to identify areas that require improvement in their environmental education and to promote greater awareness in this area. An exploratory and descriptive methodology with a qualitative approach was used, which included conducting surveys to students and teachers of the law program, as well as a review of specialized literature on the interrelation between education and the environment in the higher education environment. The results indicate the need to strengthen environmental training in the legal field and underline the importance of establishing areas for dialogue and reasoning on the relationship between law and the environment in universities. Higher education is considered a fundamental environment for developing ecological attitudes in future legal professionals, understood as a comprehensive training process that goes beyond conventional academic limits, thus promoting social and environmental change.