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2021 Summer Session Classes

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Students, please note: CampusWeb is the authoritative source for class information, so please refer to CampusWeb when making final registration decisions. Click on the name of a class to read the full description.

2021 Summer Session Classes

Term 1

ENV5423.01/Ocean & Coastal Law

Long neglected by lawmakers despite its essential ecological functions, the marine environment has increasingly been the focal point of conservation and natural resource management efforts. As a foundation for studying the laws that govern the marine environment, the course considers the natural components of estuarine, coastal, and marine ecosystems and the current conservation issues confronting them.

Professor(s)

Don Baur
Sarah M. Reiter JD’13
Tim Eichenberg

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 1

ENV5430/Ecology

Ecology is an integrative science that can provide insight into many contemporary environmental problems. Through visits to a variety of field sites in central Vermont, readings, and lectures, this course will explore the principles of ecology using a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach.

Professor(s)

Walter Poleman
Thomas Lautzenheiser

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 1

ENV5510/Three Essentials of the Electric Grid: Engineering Essentials

This course sets out, in three linked modules, the fundamental knowledge that professionals should have for working in the closely intertwined fields of energy and the environment. Students may take one, two, or three modules for one credit each.

Professor(s)

Chris Root

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 1

ENV5511/Three Essentials of the Electric Grid: Business Essentials

This course sets out, in three linked modules, the fundamental knowledge that professionals should have for working in the closely intertwined fields of energy and the environment. Students may take one, two, or three modules for one credit each.

Professor(s)

James Cater

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 1

ENV5512/Three Essentials of the Electric Grid: Legal Essentials

This course sets out, in three linked modules, the fundamental knowledge that professionals should have for working in the closely intertwined fields of energy and the environment. Students may take one, two, or three modules for one credit each.

Professor(s)

Samantha Williams JD'05

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 1

WRI7380/Advanced Environmental Legal Research

This one-credit course provides in-depth exposure to the most useful, efficient strategies and resources for environmental law research, including specialized science and statistical information resources, state, national, and international environmental law research, advanced administrative law research, legislative history, environmental updating services, etc.

Professor(s)

Christine Ryan

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 1

Term 2

ENV 5230/Global Energy Law and Policy

Global Energy Law and Policy explores the current policy framework in a particular region outside of the United States with a focus on clean energy policies. The course will explore the regions policy development process, the current energy policy framework, policies implementing global and regional climate commitments and emerging issues.

Professor(s)

Anna Marhold

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 2

ENV5446/Environmental Justice

The environmental justice movement is aimed at avoiding, minimizing, or mitigating disproportionately adverse human health and environmental impacts, including social and economic impacts, on minority and/or low-income communities, and for those communities to be engaged meaningfully in environmental decision-making processes. This course examines this environmental and public health problem.

Professor(s)

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 2

ENV5472/Law of Ecosystem Management

The concept of ecosystem management is sweeping through federal and state resource agencies, altering their orientation toward resource use and conservation issues, but what is the law of ecosystem management?

Professor(s)

J.B. Ruhl
James Salzman

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 2

ENV5474/Land Conservation Law

Increasingly important in our efforts to protect ecological diversity, climate resiliency, historic places, working lands, scenic viewsheds, open spaces, and public uses of land are conservation tools and processes such as donation of conservation easements, purchase of sensitive lands, and private/public partnerships for land conservation.

Professor(s)

Jessica Jay JD/MSEL'97

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 2

ENV5480/Environmental Crimes

Environmental crime is the most common federal offense committed by U.S. corporations, and among the most profitable criminal activity in the world. Explore this specialized practice, from the relevant investigative agencies, through the benefits of “speaking” indictments, to the applicable federal sentencing guidelines. Students will examine the major pollution prevention and wildlife protection statutes, as well as the Title 18 offenses with which they are most often paired (e.g., conspiracy, false statements, obstruction of justice).

Professor(s)

Deborah Harris

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 2

Term 3

ENV5225/Environmental Governance and the Private Sector

This class examines the push for more private sector accountability and governance in environmental matters (such as EDG and CSR policies) and how this relates to legal requirements.  The class also looks at private sector environmental governance.  In particular, the class will examine the concept of business sustainability drivers and practice, private environmental governance, including the growth of market models, and what legal standards apply.

Professor(s)

Victor Flatt

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 3

ENV5449.01/Environmental Litigation Workshop

This class uses the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill to teach civil litigation through the lens of environmental law. Units on discovery, advanced evidence and civil procedure guides students through the pretrial and trial process.

Professor(s)

Abigail Andre

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 3

ENV5550/Renewable Energy Project Finance and Development

This course will provide an in-depth look at the legal and regulatory issues associated with the development and project financing of renewable energy projects such as wind, hydro, solar, and battery storage. After completing this course, students will have a solid understanding of how to help vet the economics of renewable projects and get them permitted, financed, built, hooked-up to the grid and operational. 

Professor(s)

Brian Potts JD'04
Andrew Hanson

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 3

ENV5902/Farmed Animal Law

In the U.S., federal agencies that regulate meat, egg, and dairy production have comparatively little say over how farmed animals are bred, confined, or handled prior to slaughter.  Filling this void is a growing body of state and local farmed animal welfare laws, some of which are poised to transform industrial animal agriculture as we know it.  Recognizing this, a small handful of integrators, including Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and Smithfield, are promoting expansive, exclusive federal controls.

Professor(s)

Pamela A. Vesilind JD'08

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 3

INT7435/The International Law of Food

This course, one of the few if not the only in the world to address this critical subject matter, identifies and analyzes contemporary international legal and policy issues related to food including supply, safety, security, subsidies, and trade.  Students will master legal and structural analytical tools for addressing these increasingly important challenges of concern to all global citizens.

Professor(s)

David Wirth

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 3

Term 4

ENV5410/The Farm Bill

American farm and food policy has long been the subject of strenuous debate and criticism.  In recent years, prominent criticism has come from a movement of consumer and environmental interests concerned that the way we eat and how we support producers impacts our health, natural resources and the environment.  Other interests raise concerns that about Federal spending and government footprint.  Regardless of the reason, all of them look to the farm bill.

Professor(s)

Chris Adamo JD'04
Jonathan Coppess

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 4

ENV5422/Animal Welfare Law

In recent years, a broad and rapidly evolving field of law has developed concerning the welfare of animals that are used for a variety of human purposes, including food, entertainment, research, and companionship.  Animals used for these purposes often endure a wide range of abuses that diminish animal welfare while also impacting humans.

Professor(s)

Delcianna Winders
Heather Rally
Don Baur

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 4

ENV5425/Clean Transportation Law and Policy

Transportation is the leading source of climate pollution in the United States. This course is focused on a key pathway to reduce those harmful emissions: the electrification of our cars, trucks, and buses. We’ll examine the current federal landscape for regulation of tailpipe emissions and the range of clean transportation policy options, including a particular focus on the role of electric utilities and how electric vehicles can support a smarter, cleaner electricity grid.

Professor(s)

Joseph Halso

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 4

ENV5462/Public Lands Management: Montana Field Study

The Montana Field Study is a unique experiential learning opportunity. This class focuses on National Forest Management. Students experience forest management, wilderness, recreation, and roadless issues first-hand, in the wilds of Montana and Idaho. Almost the entire class is held in the field; we camp and hike into remote places. Instructor permission is required; contact the Environmental Law Center for further information.

Professor(s)

Chelsea Colwyn MELP'11

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 4

INT7440/Comparative U.S.-China Environmental Law

This course examines how China and the United States—the two countries with the greatest impacts on the planet’s environment—are using law to respond to environmental challenges. After an introduction to the history and structure of environmental law, the course compares approaches to regulation used in China with those employed by the U.S.

Professor(s)

Robert Percival

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Term 4

Weekend Intensive

ENV5324/Conservation Agriculture Policy

This one credit course examines state and federal conservation agriculture policies with an emphasis on Vermont’s Required Agricultural Practices (RAPs).

Professor(s)

Jennifer Byrne MELP'19

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Weekend Intensive

ENV5361/Forest Policy and Law

This intensive 2.5-day course will introduce students to the significant policy and legal issues affecting forests and forest management, using the forests of New England as a case study.

Professor(s)

Thomas McHenry

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Weekend Intensive

ENV5901.01/Toxic Exposure and Health: Communities on the Front Lines

This class will address several substantive issues from the perspective of community health, including the Toxic Substances Control Act, Air Toxics and the petrochemical industry, Pesticides and Farmworker Safety, Lead Exposure, and PFAS.  We will look at recent EPA actions and related cases, as well as community level impacts, frontline advocacy.  The class will examine and discuss the history and architecture of our federal statutory and regulatory programs that have allowed disproportionate impacts to persist for decades.  

Professor(s)

Patrice Simms

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Weekend Intensive

ENV5901.02/Land Use and Racial Justice

Land Use and Racial Justice is a one-credit course which will meet over the weekend of July 30-Aug 1. This course views the legal framework for understanding planning and zoning from the perspective of race. We explore issues that shape how land is developed and how communities are built. The course will examine the historical use of land use laws to establish and enforce racial segregation and the distribution of social, economic and environmental power.

Professor(s)

Jonathan Rosenbloom

Semester

2021 Summer Environmental - Weekend Intensive