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2018 Distance Learning Spring 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.​​​​​

2018 Distance Learning Spring Classes

DIV7620/Native Americans

This course will focus on the constitutional, statutory and jurisprudential rules that make up the field of Federal Indian Law. Attention will be given to the historical framework from which the rules were derived. After tracing the development of the underlying legal doctrines which are prominent today, we will consider subject-specific areas of Indian Law like hunting and fishing rights, stewardship of natural resources, economic development (including tribal gaming and natural resource development) and protection of religion and cultural lifestyles.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

ENV5105/Administrative Law

The goal of Administrative Law is to provide students with a working knowledge of the general principles of administrative law, a general knowledge of the workings of bureaucratic institutions, and an understanding of the critiques of government. The course examines the implementation of legislative policy through administrative agencies, including the role of administrative agencies in the governmental process, rulemaking, adjudication, and judicial review of agency actions.

Approved for JD credit.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

ENV5112/Science for Environmental Law

Ecology is an integrative science that can provide insight into many contemporary environmental problems. This course will explore the principles of ecology using a hands-on, interdisciplinary approach. Course work stresses the inventorying of biotic and physical components of a landscape (pieces), examining how these pieces are distributed (patterns), and determining what forces drive these patterns (processes). Topics will include interpreting the natural and cultural histories of a landscape, biodiversity conservation, and the scientific method, among others.

Professor(s)

Ross Jones '00

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

ENV5212/Climate Change and the Law

Climate change is the most profound social and environmental issue of the 21st century. This course will integrate the emerging science and law of climate change along with economic and intergenerational equity aspects of the problem. We will consider how existing federal laws such as the Clean Air Act and NEPA may be used to address climate change as well as how new more comprehensive laws may be fashioned. Different policy instruments will be considered including carbon taxes and emissions trading.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

ENV5226/Energy Law and Policy in a Carbon Constrained World

The energy industry is both a key to the life that billions seek and America's most significant source of pollution. Environmental problems are the energy industry's most important constraint. This course examines key issues in American energy policy, and searches for ways to resolve or ease the strains, which that policy puts upon environmental sustainability. We will review fundamental facts about our energy demands and sample regulatory orders and legal writings that address many of those elements from the perspective of a legal review.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

ENV5344/Alternative Fuels and Renewable Energy

Our world is fundamentally dependent on energy flows, yet the fuels and sources that have sustained us for the last century all seem to be showing tight limits or tragic flaws. This course, taught by a former administrative law judge for the California Public Utility Commission, explores the emerging field of renewable and alternative energy supplies. It reviews local, state, and federal laws and policies that promote (and impede) such sources, and considers emerging distributed generation models.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

ENV5478/Global Food Security and Social Justice

Looking internationally and locally, this course uses a comparative lens to assess potential climate impacts on agricultural resources and distribution channels, issues of food security, and food distribution.  Students will examine the impact of climate change on agriculture and food resources around the world and will examine the larger questions of food security and environmental justice. As weather patterns and hydrological resources shift, traditionally agriculturally rich areas will be increasingly strained.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

ENV9606/LLM Graduate Seminar

Explores diverse advanced topics and viewpoints over environmental law and policy, through discussion and lectures from environmental scholars who will present their scholarship to the seminar.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

REQ7186/Legislation and Regulation Survey

This course will provide students an introduction to the legislative process, regulatory agencies, and agency law-making. Students will learn to navigate modern U.S. government institutions and processes, with a particular emphasis on the legislative process and the administrative state. Key topics include the structure and animating principles of the U.S.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

RES7355/Advanced Legal Research Practice (14 Weeks)

This course will provide an opportunity to enhance knowledge of traditional legal research sources, both primary and secondary/practice related. Students will choose a desired practice area and jurisdiction and will be assigned a company or organization as their client. Students will conduct practice area specific research in the following areas: client background and development; litigation preparation; business and industry trends; and federal and state legislative and regulatory history.

Professor(s)

Cynthia Lewis

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

WRI7352/Bar Exam Skills and Tactics (14 Weeks)

Skills-development course designed to provide students with the analytical, test-taking, writing, and study skills that are critical to students' success on the bar exam and in the practice of law. The course consists of an intensive substantive and analytical review of major multistate bar exam subjects and of numerous writing and practice assignments. This 14-week class begins in Spring 1 DL and ends in Spring 2 DL.

Professor(s)

Joe Brennan

Semester

2018 Spring 1 DL

ENV5115/Environmental Law

This course is an introduction to the law of pollution control, management of hazardous materials, and preservation of natural resources, with a particular emphasis on major federal environmental statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Superfund.

Professor(s)

Ross Jones '00

Semester

2018 Spring 2 DL

ENV5122/Communications, Advocacy, and Leadership

A successful environmental professional should possess the ability to advocate, counsel, investigate, persuade, research, and educate. This course will develop those skills through various writing and oral advocacy projects. In addition to other writing projects, students will compose a Freedom of Information Act request, draft a public comment letter, write a grant proposal letter of inquiry, and create an environmental communication campaign. Different skills will be emphasized through the exploration of these diverse types of writing.

Professor(s)

Adrienne Soler, JD'87

Semester

2018 Spring 2 DL

ENV5228/Energy Regulation and the Environment

This course builds on the course Energy Law and Policy in a Carbon-Constrained World. The course exposes students to the legal, economic, and structural issues involved in both energy regulation and energy markets, focusing on electricity. The course examines the evolution, theory, and techniques of the monopoly regulation. Students learn how utilities are regulated. We examine rate setting, rate design and regulatory alternatives to traditional rates such as performance-based rates. The course then examines evolving competitive, market-based alternatives.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 2 DL

ENV5235/Natural Resources Law

One third of the nation's land base belongs to the American public and is managed by the United States Forest Service and agencies of the Department of the Interior. The federal lands provide significant wildlife habitat and clean water, and are important sources of timber, forage, and energy. They also offer opportunities for recreation. Through this course students will examine the statutes and regulations governing the management of the federal lands and their resources.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 2 DL

ENV5343/Climate Change Adaptation in Human Systems

Most leading scientists and policymakers agree that, even if the international community acts promptly to limit future greenhouse gas emissions, levels of carbon and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will continue to rise. Future accumulations of greenhouse gases are generally predicted to produce significant environmental effects, including higher sea levels, changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, reductions in snowfall and the extent of glaciers, and increasingly intense storms.

Professor(s)

Semester

2018 Spring 2 DL

ENV5469/Oil and Gas Development

This course reviews oil and gas regulation, both up and down stream, in the United States and around the world. With an eye toward the hot issue of the day – Fracking, the proposed natural gas pipeline through, Middle East oil reserves and trade, and so forth – this course gives students a clearer understanding of the legal regime that makes the oil and gas exploration, extraction, refining, distribution and sale markets work around the world.

This class is approved for JD Credit.

Professor(s)

Mark James

Semester

2018 Spring 2 DL

ENV5479/Law and Policy of Local Food Systems

This course explores state and local policies that impact distribution of food, restaurant regulation, and comparisons of state-level initiatives to bolster local food markets. Students will be exposed to specific skills for small and mid-size producers and entrepreneurs working in the agricultural and food industries. Finally, students will examine the state and local food laws and emerging entrepreneurial trends in food production.

Professor(s)

Cari B. Rincker

Semester

2018 Spring 2 DL

RES7355/Advanced Legal Research Practice (14 Weeks)

This course will provide an opportunity to enhance knowledge of traditional legal research sources, both primary and secondary/practice related. Students will choose a desired practice area and jurisdiction and will be assigned a company or organization as their client. Students will conduct practice area specific research in the following areas: client background and development; litigation preparation; business and industry trends; and federal and state legislative and regulatory history.

Professor(s)

Cynthia Lewis

Semester

2018 Spring 2 DL

WRI7352/Bar Exam Skills and Tactics (14 Weeks)

Skills-development course designed to provide students with the analytical, test-taking, writing, and study skills that are critical to students' success on the bar exam and in the practice of law. The course consists of an intensive substantive and analytical review of major multistate bar exam subjects and of numerous writing and practice assignments. This 14-week class begins in Spring 1 DL and ends in Spring 2 DL.

JD students only.

Professor(s)

Joe Brennan

Semester

2018 Spring 2 DL