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2016 Distance Learning Fall Semester Classes

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Note: The American Bar Association limits the number of credits a student may take online. Please discuss these limitations with your academic advisor or check with your State Bar Association.

2016 Distance Learning Fall Semester Classes

ENV5105.A/Administrative Law

The goal of Administrative Law is to provide students with a working knowledge of the general principles of administrative law, a general knowledge of the workings of bureaucratic institutions, and an understanding of the critiques of government. The course examines the 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 course is approved for JD Credit.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-1 DL

ENV5112.A/Science for Environmental Law

Ecology is an integrative science that can provide insight into many contemporary environmental problems. This course will explore the principles of ecology using a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach. Course work stresses the inventorying of biotic and physical components of a landscape (pieces), examining how these pieces are distributed (patterns), and determining what forces drive these patterns (processes). Topics will include interpreting the natural and cultural histories of a landscape, biodiversity conservation, and the scientific method, among others.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-1 DL

ENV5212.A/Climate Change and the Law

Climate change is the most profound social and environmental issue of the 21st century. This course will integrate the emerging science and law of climate change along with economic and intergenerational equity aspects of the problem. We will consider how existing federal laws such as the Clean Air Act and NEPA may be used to address climate change as well as how new more comprehensive laws may be fashioned. Different policy instruments will be considered including carbon taxes and emissions trading.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-1 DL

ENV5214.A/Climate Change Mitigation

The heat is on, in the courts as well as the biosphere. Seeking to prod faster governmental response to the growing menace of climate change, advocates are turning to a variety of different legal, advocacy, and technological methods to reduce carbon and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and reduce the overall impact of climate change on the planet. Climate litigation has brought together an intriguing coalition of states, environmentalists, and "green" economic interests. Emboldened by the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Massachusetts v.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-1 DL

ENV5226.A/Energy Law and Policy in a Carbon-Constrained World

The energy industry is both a key to the life that billions seek and America's most significant source of pollution. Environmental problems are the energy industry's most important constraint. This course examines key issues in American energy policy, and searches for ways to resolve or ease the strains, which that policy puts upon environmental sustainability. We will review fundamental facts about our energy demands and sample regulatory orders and legal writings that address many of those elements from the perspective of a legal review.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-1 DL

ENV5344.A/Alternative Fuels and Renewable Energy

Our world is fundamentally dependent on energy flows, yet the fuels and sources that have sustained us for the last century all seem to be showing tight limits or tragic flaws. This course explores the emerging field of renewable and alternative energy supplies. It reviews local, state, and federal laws and policies that promote (and impede) such sources, and considers emerging distributed generation models.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-1 DL

ENV5478.A/Global Food Security and Social Justice

This course addresses the legal landscape of global hunger, and the ways in which climate change, population growth and economic inequality intersect with food security law and policy challenges. First, we’ll address how “food security” and “hunger” are defined and measured for policy-making purposes. Then, we’ll explore international legal frameworks supporting food security and comparative domestic legal frameworks impacting food security, including Constitutional food rights, agriculture subsidies and tariffs, and public food and nutrition assistance programs.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-1 DL

LLM9606.A/LLM Graduate Seminar

This seminar ranges widely over environmental law and policy, exploring diverse advanced topics and viewpoints, and entailing vigorous discussion of the leading environmental law and policy issues of our day. Each student will also complete a mini-thesis in which they will develop their own analysis perspective or solution to a problem in environmental law and policy.
Approved for LLM credit only.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-1 DL

REQ7186.A/Regulation and Legislation, Survey

This course will provide students an introduction to the legislative process, regulatory agencies, and agency law-making. Students will learn to navigate modern U.S. government institutions and processes, with a particular emphasis on the legislative process and the administrative state. Key topics include the structure and animating principles of the U.S.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-1 DL

ADR6415.A/Environmental Dispute Resolution

This course explores the characteristics of environmental disputes, examines alternative dispute resolution processes (including mediation, arbitration, negotiated rulemaking, and facilitation), and assesses relevant policy and practical considerations in selecting the most effective method of resolving environmental disputes.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-2 DL

ENV5115.A/Environmental Law

This course is an introduction to the law of pollution control, management of hazardous materials, and preservation of natural resources, with a particular emphasis on major federal environmental statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Superfund.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-2 DL

ENV5122.A/Communication, Advocacy and Leadership

A successful environmental professional should possess the ability to advocate, counsel, investigate, persuade, research, and educate. This course will develop those skills through various writing and oral advocacy projects. In addition to other writing projects, students will compose a Freedom of Information Act request, draft a public comment letter, write a grant proposal letter of inquiry, and create an environmental communication campaign. Different skills will be emphasized through the exploration of these diverse types of writing.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-2 DL

ENV5228.A/Energy Regulation, Markets, and the Environment

This course builds on the course Energy Law and Policy in a Carbon-Constrained World. The course exposes students to the legal, economic, and structural issues involved in both energy regulation and energy markets, focusing on electricity. The course examines the evolution, theory, and techniques of the monopoly regulation. Students learn how utilities are regulated. We examine rate setting, rate design and regulatory alternatives to traditional rates such as performance-based rates. The course then examines evolving competitive, market-based alternatives.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-2 DL

ENV5235.A/Natural Resources Law

One third of the nation's land base belongs to the American public and is managed by the United States Forest Service and agencies of the Department of the Interior. The federal lands provide significant wildlife habitat and clean water, and are important sources of timber, forage, and energy. They also offer opportunities for recreation. Through this course students will examine the statutes and regulations governing the management of the federal lands and their resources.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-2 DL

ENV5343.A/Climate Change Adaptation in Human Systems

Most leading scientists and policymakers agree that, even if the international community acts promptly to limit future greenhouse gas emissions, levels of carbon and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will continue to rise. Future accumulations of greenhouse gases are generally predicted to produce significant environmental effects, including higher sea levels, changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, reductions in snowfall and the extent of glaciers, and increasingly intense storms.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-2 DL

ENV5469.A/Oil and Gas Development and the Environment

This course reviews oil and gas regulation, both up and down stream, in the United States and around the world. With an eye toward the hot issue of the day – Fracking, the proposed natural gas pipeline through, Middle East oil reserves and trade, and so forth – this course gives students a clearer understanding of the legal regime that makes the oil and gas exploration, extraction, refining, distribution and sale markets work around the world.
This class is approved for JD Credit.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-2 DL

ENV5479.A/Law and Policy of Local Food Systems

This course explores state and local policies that impact distribution of food, restaurant regulation, and comparisons of state-level initiatives to bolster local food markets. Students will be exposed to specific skills for small and mid-size producers and entrepreneurs working in the agricultural and food industries. Finally, students will examine the state and local food laws and emerging entrepreneurial trends in food production.

Professor(s)

Semester

2016 Fall-2 DL