Legal Aspects of Resource Management

Catalog description

Legal systems and lawmaking processes; property rights in land, water, and wildlife resources; jurisdictional problems in planning resource use. E R M 411 Legal Aspects of Resource Management (3) This course provides a survey of the basic legal principles, regimes, and issues related to environmental protection and natural resource management. The course is designed for students interested in environmental resource management and related careers, providing them with a basic grounding in core principles of environmental law and regulation. The course will offer instruction, discussion, and practical application of theories of environmental law and basic legal and regulatory regimes related to water, air, and land. Focus will be on core federal legal regimes and statutes and their application in Pennsylvania. These legal regimes will be explored through topical case studies, such as Chesapeake Bay restoration, Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction, and climate change. During the latter half of the course, practical application of environmental legal issues will be demonstrated in a hands on manner where students will represent private, nonprofit, or government sectors in a hypothetical land development proposal, and will be expected to perform tasks they may be asked to perform during their environmental careers: preparing permit applications, public comment documents, writing permit conditions, and challenging and defending final agency decisions.