Environmental Law and Policy

Catalog description

This course provides a broad exploration of the basic legal principles, regimes, and issues related to environmental protection and natural resource management. Part 1 of the course gives students an overview of how the U.S. legal system works and relevant principles of constitutional and common law. Part 1 also reviews the fundamentals of environmental law and policy. After building this foundation, part 2 of the course focuses primarily on federal statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, Superfund, and the Clean Air Act. Part 3 uses case studies to illustrate how these laws fit together, and how they also relate to state and international issues. In addition to learning about foundational legal principles, students will learn the core principles of environmental law and regulation, and how they are changing over time. They will also better understand how federal, state, and even international environmental laws and policies fit together through the use of case studies to help illustrate key points.