Environmental Law (Welton)
Additional Information
Skills Training
Drafting Legal Documents
Other Professional Skills:
Grading
95% Exam,
5% Other (I particularly value everyone’s consistent, active participation in classroom discussions. For this reason, participation can affect your grade positively or negatively by a half-letter (e.g., an A- could become an A or a B+). Participation grades will be based on the quality, not quantity, of your contributions.)
Exam
Short Answer,
Essay,
In Class,
Open-Book
No
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
MW 10:30AM - 11:50AM
Silverman Hall 245A
Category
Upper-Level
Credits
3.0
This introductory course surveys U.S. law's approach to addressing harms to the environment and human health. Topics will include air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, toxic substances, and climate change. We will focus predominantly on federal law, although the relationship and division of authority between the federal and state governments will be a recurring theme. The course will cover both traditional statutory approaches and novel emerging approaches to environmental protection and lectures will frequently interweave discussions of current news events, legislative debates, and administrative reforms. Through careful engagement with statutory and administrative materials, students will have the opportunity to develop, link, and apply skills of statutory interpretation and administrative law within the context of environmental protection. (Note: Administrative law is not a prerequisite for this course; there will be a day devoted to getting students without an administrative law background up to speed.)
Over the course of the semester, students will come to understand the theoretical justifications, economic theory, and justice dimensions of environmental law; learn tools to decipher and interpret the complex language and structure of environmental law statutes; appreciate the policy mechanisms available to address environmental problems and the reasons for choosing among them; and develop a broad understanding of the history, aims, and outcomes of environmental law; its political economy; and the value choices it implicates.
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.
Textbooks
"Cases and Materials on Environmental Law" by Daniel A. Farber | William Boyd |