Climate Change Law (Welton)
Additional Information
Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Grading
100% Participation
No
If you wish to write your senior writing requirement on a class-related topic, be in touch and we can work out an independent study.
Class meets in person.
Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.
I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:
- Class sessions are regularly recorded. If you are absent due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can send you an email with instructions for accessing the recording for the class session(s) you missed.
Meeting Times/Location
T 2:20PM - 4:20PM
Tanenbaum Hall 345
Category
Seminar
Credits
3.0
In this seminar, we will read and discuss together seminal books and related materials on climate change law, policy, and politics. Decidedly non-doctrinal, this seminar will seek to make sense of the moment we find ourselves in with respect to the long climate crisis by reading a wide range of leading thinkers on climate change across disciplines, including law, political theory, indigenous studies, geography, and literature. We will read several full books as well as numerous chapters and articles over the course of the semester. This discussion-centered seminar will have grades based 100% on participation, including in live classroom discussions with rotating student leaders and weekly submission of discussion questions (i.e., there is no final paper!). No laptops permitted in class. Our class will be organized around five themes: building a foundation; international climate law and geopolitics; capitalism, climate change, and democracy; climate knowledge and climate imagination; and paths forward. Take this class if you want to read and converse deeply and broadly about the causes and consequences of climate change and to think in community about how to build more durable, just, and efficacious climate solutions. No environmental or climate change law background is necessary, just a thirst to read and explore the topic.
Perspectives on the Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of how the law affects, and is affected by, the individual course topic; Perform legal analysis in the context of the individual course topic; Communicate effectively on the legal and other aspects of the individual course topic; Demonstrate the ability to use other disciplines to analyze legal issues relevant to the individual course topic, including economics, philosophy, and sociology, as appropriate.
Environmental Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of environmental law; Perform legal analysis in the context of environmental law; Communicate effectively on topics related to environmental law; Demonstrate an understanding of how environmental law affects other areas of law.
Administrative and Regulatory Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of administrative and regulatory law and the administrative process, including the role of statutory authorization and work of administrative agencies; Perform legal analysis in the context of administrative and regulatory law; Communicate effectively on topics related to administrative and regulatory law; Demonstrate an understanding of the role administrative and regulatory law play in our legal system and in society as a whole.
Public Interest Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of the varied legal aspects of public interest law; Perform legal analysis in the context of public interest law; Communicate effectively on topics related to public interest law; Demonstrate an understanding of how public interest law is connected to and affected by a wide variety of legal and regulatory structures and doctrines.