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. The seminar will provide opportunities for students to work on U.S.-China environmental law research projects that will provide technical assistance to partners who engage in environmental advocacy and  environmental law reform in China. The seminar will provide introduction and background on comparative law and methodology, introduction to Chinese environmental law and governance, and  substantive and procedure laws related to the research projects, 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 series of research reports or 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 paper or a series of research reports of 30-35 page equivalent (for 3 credits) or a paper or a series of research reports of 20-25 page equivalent (for 2 credits) as their final exam.
Method of evaluation: class performance (10%) and the final paper (90%).