Courses

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. Module A: Engineering Fundamentals for Analyzing Energy and the Environment The engineering realities of electric power grids and natural gas pipelines greatly constrain the choices that lawyers and policy analysts might otherwise make. This module will cover the engineering fundamentals inherent in the current and expected energy infrastructure. Module B: Legal Fundamentals for Analyzing Energy and the Environment Decades of controversy and development have created a detailed legal and regulatory structure that channels and often defines the choices made by energy providers and users. This module will cover the key jurisdictional, procedural, and substantive elements of the federal and state laws most directly affecting energy and the environment. Module C: Business Fundamentals for Analyzing Energy and the Environment America’s energy system is often called the most capital-intensive sector in our society. Whether you care about environmental consequences, reliability, or costs, your ability to understand and influence the behavior of energy companies will be helped by this module’s overview of the key financial, economic, and accounting factors that drive those companies’ goals and decisions.

The subject matter of this survey course is broadly the law of government, and to a considerable extent it is a lesson in advanced civics. More particularly, the course is designed to familiarize students with the legal and institutional structure of American administrative and constitutional law on the federal level. Through this analysis, students are expected to develop a deeper understanding of the dynamics of government and the mechanisms for assuring the legality of governmental processes. In addition, the course will provide a foundation for inquiries into specialized or particularized subject matter areas that rely in large part on administrative law doctrines as the language in which critical social policy choices are made, including in particular the law of the environment. The course will utilize problem exercises and simulations designed to illustrate some of the principal pedagogical points in concrete fashion. To the extent possible, the exercises, simulations, and case studies will be drawn from the environmental field. Required for M.S.E.L.

This course explores the nature and characteristics of environmental disputes, examines alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes, and assesses policy and practical considerations that are relevant when selecting a process (including litigation) for resolution of a particular dispute. Statutes, including the Administrative Dispute Resolution Act and the Negotiated Rulemaking Act, will be examined. Simulations, including mediation and arbitration of siting disputes, are used to provide practical exposure to the ADR processes studied. Students cannot take both this course and Alternative Dispute Resolution. Environmental Law and Administrative Law are recommended, but not required.

The objective of the course is to research and write a publishable article of about 6,000 words on a narrowly focused issue of land use law. During the first week, students meet with the faculty members individually and as a class to discuss their chosen topics and focus their research and writing. The second week is devoted to intensive research and drafting and individual meetings with both faculty members. The third week is devoted to writing. Students will submit a first draft by June 11 to the two faculty members and two peer reviewers. On the last day of class, students will briefly present their papers, and the two peer reviewers will offer individual critiques. The final paper will be due one week after the final class. The faculty will work with the students thereafter to find appropriate places to publish the articles. Students will learn not only how to learn and write something substantial about a narrowly focused area of land use law, but also to produce an article of publishable quality and get it published, with obvious benefits in terms of professional reputation and placement. Regulatory, Resource Management and Planning

Nonhuman animals have no legal rights. We will discuss some of their current legal protections, the problem of obtaining standing, as well as sources and characteristics of fundamental rights—why humans are entitled to them, why nonhumans are denied them, whether they should be limited to humans and, if not, what rights should nonhuman animals be entitled to under common law. Ethics/Philosophy

Across the globe, wildlife and its habitat are increasingly threatened by human-caused habitat destruction, over-exploitation, poaching, illegal trade, invasive species, disease, and climate change. This course examines what biodiversity is, the growing threats to it, and U.S. and international laws to combat those threats. The course focuses on statutes, case law, environmental ethics, and current controversies to highlight legal, scientific, and political strategies for protecting biodiversity. Particular emphasis is placed on the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Ethics/Philosophy, Policy, Resource Management and Planning

This course examines, in depth, the key provisions of the Clean Water Act, including technology-based requirements, effluent limitations, water quality standards, permitting, enforcement, control of polluted runoff, and resolution of interstate disputes. The course evaluates the success of the Clean Water Act in protecting and improving water quality and discusses other statutory and common law mechanisms for water pollution control. The course provides significant practice with interpretation of statutes and regulations and evaluating proposed legislation. Regulatory, Policy

The heat is on, in the courts as well as the biosphere. Frustrated with the slow governmental response to the growing menace of climate change, advocates are turning to the courts to goad agencies into action and to seek damages and injunctions against industrial sources of greenhouse gases (GHG). 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 EPA, federal courts across the country have handed down a number of important decisions with more to come. This course will review the various statutory and common law claims being tried, the kinds of remedies being sought, and the jurisdictional and evidentiary obstacles. We'll also examine other forms of advocacy including petitions to require disclosure of climate risks in SEC filings and shareholder actions. And we'll take a look at what's happening in other countries and what recourse is provided under international regimes. Regulatory, Policy

This course covers key components of effective land use planning and both regulatory and nonregulatory tools to implement those plans. A brief history of the evolution of land use planning in this country and elsewhere, as well as a comparison among the states, is included. What smart growth is and the barriers to it are discussed. Half of the course is devoted to applying Vermont’s statutes to specific development scenarios. Course participants will gain a strong overview of community planning in practice. Ethics, Policy

Using the ESA-protected bull trout as a paradigm, students will first explore how an imperiled species affects natural resource management (timber, minerals, water) in national forests in the West. The second half of the course will address how coal bed methane development—a key component of President Bush’s national energy policy—invokes a host of federal laws: the Clean Water Act, Mineral Leasing Act, and NEPA, to name a few. The course will include a healthy dose of litigation strategy from recent cases. Environmental Law and Administrative Law recommended. Policy, Resource Management and Planning

This course is an intensive, integrative investigation of the central Vermont landscape. This hands-on, field science course teaches law students interested in land conservation to interpret any landscape from the rocks up. We will visit a variety of field sites and learn an interdisciplinary approach to landscape assessment that stresses not only inventorying the biotic and physical components (pieces), but examining how these pieces are distributed in the landscape (patterns) and what forces drive these patterns (processes). This is a limited enrollment course. Choose Ecology A or Ecology B (Term Two)–not both.

This course explores the intersection of energy and development with special attention to the implications of climate change. The professors bring a perspective gained from multilateral environmental finance and development work to these issues. Course topics and readings are based on recent developments and include case studies of the environmental implications of energy growth for development in China and other large developing countries, the opportunities and challenges to renewable energy and other technological solutions, and the potential contribution of carbon trading. The past and potential future role of the World Bank and other development institutions is also addressed, and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol provide background context. Policy, Resource Management and Planning

Understanding the implications of policy and law, as well as planning for the future, often involves forecasting the outcome of complex relationships. For example, land use growth impacts transportation infrastructure, which, in turn, affects future land use growth. The importance of this and other relationships is constantly being revealed and incorporated into forecasting techniques. This course considers how forecasting is performed and reviewed within a legal framework. We will use the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Air Act to illustrate how courts and administrative agencies review and adapt to the uncertainties of forecasting. We will consider standards of review and how policymaking agencies, intervener groups, and the general public all interact within this changing process. Regulatory, Policy

This course is an introduction to the law pertaining to environmental issues such as population, economic growth, energy, and pollution. Environmental problems are defined and alternative approaches for dealing with them are examined. Existing statutory efforts such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act are analyzed. MELP: Required. Section B is only available to MELP Students.

This course provides an overview of the tremendous environmental challenges for China’s 1.3 billion people and the efforts to address them through law and regulation. After an introduction to the political and legal system and cultural background of the world’s soon-to-be largest greenhouse gas emitter, we will survey 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. Among the key issues covered are the challenges of large hydropower projects like the Three Gorges Dam, high visibility pollution incidents like the Songhua river spill, China’s burgeoning electronic waste recycling industry, public participation and democratic governance as it impacts environmental protection in a socialist state, environmental enforcement, and the country’s approach to global climate change. If there is sufficient interest, we may offer an additional, optional, one-credit session in China immediately following the class, to let students experience firsthand the environmental conditions and lectures and meetings with leading Chinese environmental scholars and activists. Ethics/Philosophy, Policy, Regulatory

This course considers the rules governing the admissibility of testimonial, physical, documentary, and demonstrative evidence in trials and other formal legal proceedings. Among important topics considered are relevance, hearsay, opinion and expert testimony, impeachment, and burdens of proof and privilege. The course utilizes problems for discussion, traditional case materials, the Federal Rules of Evidence, and simulations to illustrate concepts being discussed. Students will be “on their feet” often and argue evidentiary points in front of the class as part of the curriculum. This is a limited enrollment course.

This course examines the unique body of federal law governing Indian country–the geographic area recognized by the federal government as the homeland of sovereign American Indian tribes. Major topics include the history of federal-tribal relations, tribal property rights, tribal court systems, and the balance of governmental power between tribes, states, and the federal government. Particular attention will be paid to the implementation of federal environmental regulatory programs in Indian country. Ethics/Philosophy, Policy, Regulatory

In the international arena, students study treaties that may provide remedies for harm caused to humans and to natural resources by activities such as transporting oil in tankers, burning fossil fuels, and exporting hazardous substances. They also study many efforts to prevent harm rather than to remedy it. Comparative law issues range from how similar, environmentally based disputes between private parties might be resolved in a wide variety of legal and social systems, to a detailed comparison of environmental legislation in two federal systems and their member states–the U.S. and the European Community.

This course aims to introduce students to the theories and strategies of three essential skills at the core of the ethical, professional, and competent practice of law: interviewing, counseling, and negotiation. This introduction, however, will require students to journey on a less concrete path of self-exploration of the characteristics that define their dynamics of interpersonal interactions, their reaction to conflict, and their approach to decision-making. The course is broken down into three interrelated components: conflict theory and communication; lawyer-client communication; and communication and resolution.

Increasingly important in our efforts to preserve ecological diversity, historic places, working lands, scenic viewsheds, open space, 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. Students will research and review the swiftly developing body of law and legal issues accompanying the use of conservation easements, and will gain a practical understanding of both the legal and nonlegal dimensions of land conservation transactions involving conservation easements. In addition, students will actively be engaged in a progressive conservation transaction, beginning with early negotiations, drafting, and financial analysis, and proceed along a spectrum to donation, violation, and enforcement of terms of a conservation easement. Each student will be responsible for role playing exercises throughout the conservation transaction process and will prepare, draft, and negotiate a conservation easement, assess various financial scenarios, and identify and resolve disputes related to the conservation transaction. Resource Management and Planning