This seminar is a research and writing seminar that will provide a framework and faculty supervision for students to engage in comparative environmental law research. While the seminar is designed primarily to support VLS students participating in the U.S.-China joint student research projects, the seminar is sufficiently broad to accommodate students interested in researching the environmental law systems of other countries. The seminar will provide some basic introduction and background on comparative law and methodology, a brief introduction to Chinese environmental law and governance, and other environmental laws in Southeast Asia countries, and research methods and resources. Students will learn basic comparative law methodology and research skills related to navigating a foreign legal system and generate a publishable paper at the end of the course. This course will focus on helping students design/refine their research project proposals and critiquing their research and draft papers. This course is a two-semester sequence (fall 2-credits, spring 1-credit), though the fall semester may be taken independently. Students are required to write a 30-35 page paper (for 3 credits) or a *20-25 page paper (for 2 credits) as their final exam, and are allowed to write this paper together with AWR. Method of evaluation: class performance (10%) and the final paper (90%). *AWR Spring registration 2015. A research and writing seminar that provides a framework and faculty supervision for students to engage in comparative environmental law research. While the seminar is designed primarily to support VLS students participating in the US-China joint student research projects and will focus generally on China, the seminar is sufficiently broad to accommodate students interested in researching the environmental law systems of other countries.