Courses

Provides students with a working knowledge of the general principles of administrative law;  implementation of legislative policy through administrative agencies, including the role of administrative agencies in the governmental process, rulemaking, adjudication, and judicial review of agency actions

This seminar provides an opportunity to explore emerging issues in dispute resolution through research and writing. The goal is to produce a publishable quality article. 

This seminar provides students an opportunity to produce a significant written paper based on sophisticated research and thinking about a key area in energy policy and law. Seminar topics include proposals for reducing the economic and environmental costs of meeting energy needs. Efforts to reduce costs through more efficient delivery and end-use are assessed, with specific attention to the statutory, regulatory, and contractual techniques for creating sound incentives.

Provides in-depth exposure to the most useful, efficient strategies and resources for environmental law research, including highly specialized information databases, advanced administrative law research, legislative history, and environmental news/updating services.

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Provides in-depth exposure to the most useful, efficient strategies and resources for environmental law research, including highly specialized information databases, advanced administrative law research, legislative history, and environmental news/updating services.

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Land use development and management practices can have significant impacts on the conservation of biodiversity, yet land use is not systematically regulated to address those impacts.  Instead, a mosaic of intersecting legal institutions regulate private land use through federal laws (e.g. the Endangered Species Act, wetlands regulation under the Clean Water Act) state laws (e.g., growth management systems, environmental impact assessment requirements) local regulation (e.g. general plans, subdivision regulations, zoning ordinances) and private actions (e.g. conservation easements).  This writing seminar examines the intersection of advanced forms of land use regulation in the context of an in-depth student investigation of a significant biodiversity conservation challenge.  Reading focuses on (1) the relationship between local, state, and federal regulation, and (2) the relationship between public regulation and private means of conserving biodiversity.  Each student will select a case study of a conservation effort involving land use that involves multiple regulatory actors and multiple laws.  Students will review regulatory and easement documents, interview regulators, community participants and developers, produce a written case-study, and prepare present the case to the class.

An overview of the environmental impacts of agriculture, U.S. agricultural policy, the Farm Bill, genetically modified crops, organic farming certification, and international trade and environmental agreements that influence agricultural practices in the U.S.

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An exploration of the major programs and regulatory strategies embodied in the Clean Air Act that are used to address conventional air pollution, toxic air pollution, and greenhouse gas pollution. 

This course presents the theory and practice of arbitration, negotiation, mediation and other processes placed under the umbrella of alternative dispute resolution. This survey course focuses on the theory and practice of dispute resolution as either an alternative or an addition to formal litigation. Students will study the legal, sociological, and ethical issues in dispute resolution and apply them in simulation exercises designed to explore the three major types of alternative dispute resolution.

This course addresses the fundamental crisis in which growing energy demands are threatening the buffering capacity of our global atmosphere, while also producing the greatest emissions of most primary pollutants, and the struggle to identify and create the legal elements necessary to promote and ensure solutions.

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Farmed animal welfare policies in the U.S. and E.U. have become increasingly disparate, in turn straining international trade relations. This course will compare and contrast U.S. and E.U. regulatory schemes implicated in farmed animal food production and animal welfare policies and regulations. Students will be introduced to international agreements that regulate the trade of foods from farmed animals (including GATT, SPS, and the Agreement on Agriculture) and the mechanisms used to resolve these differences (the WTO dispute settlement process). Discussions about WTO Appellate Body decisions will illustrate how the economic, political, and philosophical conflicts surrounding animal welfare and public health are analyzed.

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Examines the nature of the arbitration process, rules governing hearings, the relationship between arbitration and the court system, the enforceability of agreements to arbitrate,  and judicial review of arbitration award.  This course also explores the controversial areas of arbitration such as requiring arbitration in employment and consumer contracts.

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Explores the interface of environmental laws and federal bankruptcy statutes, as well as the tension between the goals of bankruptcy and the goals of environmental law, in particular CERCLA. Topics covered include the rights and obligations of debtors and creditors under the Bankruptcy Code, the discharge of environmental debts in bankruptcy, and the abandonment of contaminated property by the bankruptcy trustee.

An examination of what biodiversity is, the growing threats to it, and U.S. and international laws to combat those threats. The course focuses on current controversies to highlight legal, scientific, and political strategies for protecting biodiversity. Particular emphasis is placed on the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

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Examines CERCLA's broad liability and cost recovery provisions, emergency response and cleanup requirements that extend beyond the usual Superfund sites.  Brownfields, natural resources damages, community involvement, recent Supreme Court decisions and statutory amendments will also be addressed.  The course will examine how parties escape or limit  liability through due diligence, defenses,  pollution prevention, settlement, and cost allocation.

This course reviews the various statutory and common law claims being tried in climate litigation, the kinds of remedies sought, and the jurisdictional and evidentiary obstacles that must be overcome.

The Arctic generally is considered the least studied and most poorly understood area on Earth. At the same time, global warming has reduced ice cover and thus increased pressure to allow industrial activities such as oil and gas development in Arctic waters. This course explores the pressures to develop America’s Arctic, the legal structures pursuant to which development decisions are and should be made, how the Deepwater Horizon disaster has influenced those decisions, and what development of the Arctic means for local residents, the United States, and the world. Throughout the course, the role in shaping the law of science, and impacts to Arctic indigenous peoples and the environment will be addressed.

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This seminar explores the ways in which tax systems can effect change in the energy consumption behavior of business, industry, and consumers.  The seminar addresses issues of theory, policy, politics, and law and --while focusing on climate change-- provides students with a framework for understanding how and when to use tax measures to address other environmental problems.

An overview of the environmental challenges for China's 1.3 billion people and the efforts to address them through law and regulation. Includes an introduction to the political and legal system and cultural background of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, and surveys the basic regulatory schemes managing air quality, water resources and quality, natural resources, environmental impact assessments, and pending legislation concerning waste management and energy conservation. 

Interdisciplinary seminar that combines the study of cultural ecology with legal anthropology. The course examines the historical roots of the current environmental crisis in the development of agriculture, urbanization and industrialization. The course focuses on the political and cultural challenges of climate change in other historical periods and the challenges that global warming presents in different parts of the world.