LAW 5340 - ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This course focuses on domestic environmental law and, in particular, on federal law rather than state law. The diverse and technical nature of modern environmental law is such that, in practice, lawyers often specialize in very narrow areas. Nevertheless, the same or similar moral, scientific, and policy arguments familiar to one area of the law are found in many of the others and similar regulatory approaches have been adopted or proposed for adoption to deal with very different types of environmental hazards. This course will focus its attention on the clean air and water acts, the national environmental policy act, the resource conservation and recovery act, the comprehensive environmental response, compensation, and liability act, and wetland protection, with passing coverage of various federal public land management statutes. We will explore the basic regulatory and non-regulatory approaches currently in place, including market-based systems to achieve better environmental quality, as well as proposals for changes to those approaches. A significant portion of the course will also be devoted to exploring issues presented by government and citizen suit enforcement of environmental laws. While administrative law is obviously relevant to much of environmental law given the fact that it is agencies which make and administer the law involved, the course will offer students an overview of administrative law principles which will be sufficient background for the purposes of this course.
Academic Career: Law
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad LG/SU3 Basis
Course Requirements: PROG: School of Law (LAWSC)
Course Attributes: Global Studies

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