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Food Impact Litigation

Professor(s)

Semester

2020 Summer - Term 2

About This Class

This course examines the potential and limitations of litigation against the industrial agriculture system. We will touch on the most common causes of action used in federal courts, as well as several new theories good food movement advocates are testing. In considering these approaches we will discuss their legal elements and remedies, how they can be used to advance a narrative about the current food system, and the ways in which they might be combined with policy advocacy. The goal is not to provide you a full review of each area of law, but to give you a flavor of how each area can be used to hold industrial agriculture accountable for the harms it causes—both legally and as part of a broader campaign. Because offensive litigation never occurs without pushback, we’ll also briefly consider one of the ways in which industry has sought to protect itself, and how litigators are challenging those laws. Regulatory petitions and proceedings under the APA will not be the focus of this course, but we will discuss those to the extent they intersect with more traditional trial court litigation theories. The hope is students will leave with an appreciation both for how litigation can be used to advance the good food movement, as well as how litigation is only one of many tools we rely upon. 

Class Code

ENV5902.01

Subject

Unspecified