LAW 568LEC - Environmental Law

This course will focus on the ways different legal regimes deal with environmental, health and other risks caused by pollution. We will begin with policy concepts underlying what has become our system of environmental laws, touch on common-law theories such as tort, nuisance, and trespass, and ground ourselves in some administrative law basics. We will then examine some of the major federal-state “media statutes” such as the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Clean Air Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act. We will ask why each statute was written (i.e. what Congress had in mind), how it has been implemented by the agencies, how it has been interpreted by courts, and how it works in actual practice. We will explore broader areas of authority under which agencies act beyond just regulations and enforcement. Throughout, we will evaluate whether these kinds of programs are appropriate to deal with the major environmental and energy issue of this era, climate change. A good deal of the substantive law will be covered by practicing environmental law experts, who will complete short graded “units” in an adjunct capacity. Assessment and grading will be based on a series of short assignments at the end of each unit, one final brief paper on a topic chosen by each student, as well as short weekly written assignments. There will be no final exam. Students who have taken Law 672, Environmental Law I, may NOT take this course.

Credits: 3