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Environmental Law
Courses - US Environmental Law

Advanced Environmental Law:

Biotechnology: Environmental Laws and Regulatory Controls (2)
This course considers the state of biotechnology, its successes, problems, and promise. It presents an overview of regulatory, legal, political, and ethical considerations of this new technology based on the manipulation and transfer of genes. The focus will be on both the coordinated regulatory framework in the United States and possible overlapping and occasionally conflicting activities of the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, and Department of Agriculture. The course will consider developing case law. Also, it will examine the international regulation of biotechnology, the human genome project and its legal implications, and the implications of biotechnology for intellectual property/patent law. Cohen (Summer)

Environmental Law (3)
Provides an overview of environmental law with particular emphasis on the scientific, political, and economic issues underlying environmental conflicts. Statutes studied include RCRA, CERCLA, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. Issues of citizen suits, forcing agency action, judicial review, technology-based and market-based instruments, and federalism are studied in detail. Students participate in classroom exercises, including a Senate hearing and a business case study. Salzman, Breen, and Wallace (Fall & Spring)

Environmental Issues in Business Transactions (2)
 Explores the environmental issues that must be considered in both the formation and acquisition of business ventures and examines the potential liability under RCRA and CERCLA of the various parties, including officers, directors, shareholders, and operators. Students must have taken both Environmental Law and Business Associations. P. Wallace (Fall)

Heritage Resources Law (2)
 This course includes a review of the major federal statutes and regulations applicable to the preservation of cultural property. Heritage Resources Law, an interdisciplinary course, exposes students to federal administrative law, criminal law, civil procedure, environmental law, Native American law, and litigation strategies. Examines the application of NEPA, the Coastal Zone Management Act, and the Natural Historic Preservation Act. Issues studied include historic sites, Native American artifacts, submerged cultural resources, and criminal, civil, and administrative remedies. Blanco (Spring)

Land Use Regulation (4)
Examines the law of zoning and land use controls, the forms of action seeking relief from zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations and exactions, exclusionary zoning, the law of takings, inverse condemnation, and due process claims against state and local governments. Classes focus upon these law and practice subjects as well as several administrative "trial practice" exercises involving zoning proceedings, such as applications for variances and re-zonings and permits for the demolition of historic structures. Burke (Fall)

Natural Resources (3)
Water rights, coal development, oil and gas development, the environmental implications of the private law system of development rights, and the impact of federal statutes. Burke (Fall)

Oil and Gas Law (2)
 Nature and ownership of oil and gas interests, conveyancing and leasing of hydrocarbon interests, royalties, implied covenants in oil and gas leases, pooling and utilization, Oil and Gas Conservation Commission practice, and oil and gas lease operational rights and restrictions. Day (Fall)

Regulation of Energy (2)
 The development, pricing, and delivery of energy resources, including oil, gas, coal, electricity, and nuclear energy; and the environmental aspects of energy development. As an incentive, Professor Burke has endowed a scholarship, of $2000, for those participating in this course. They are awarded for the best final exam or paper each semester selected by experts in the field. Burke and Day (Spring)

Seminar: Environmental Litigation (2)
 Covers the procedural, substantive, and tactical considerations in environmental litigation. Various compliance and enforcement strategies are examined while students draft complaints and other trial ocuments. Roady (Fall)

Seminar: Federal Public Lands and Natural Resources Law (2)
Study of the development and protection of federal lands and natural resources, including the outer continental shelf. Emphasis on the problems of government and user in developing mineral resources (oil and gas and mining), forests, water and native American lands. The preservation and protection of wilderness area, wildlife, parks, and other public interest in the nation's lads. Burke (Spring)

Supervised Environmental Externship (2)
Seminar linked with field placements. Focuses on the practical aspects of environmental protection, drawing from the students' own experience in the field. Course materials address ethical issues, drafting, negotiation, and the challenges encountered working in a professional legal setting. Salzman
(Fall & Spring)

Advanced Environmental Law: Federal Public Lands and Natural Resources (2)
Examines the development and protection of federal lands and natural resources, including the outer continental shelf. Emphasizes the problems of government and user in developing mineral resources (oil, gas, and mining), forests, and water on federal and Native American lands. The preservation and protection of wilderness areas, wildlife, parks, and other public interests in the nation's lands.

Advanced Environmental Law: Hazardous Waste (3)
 Provides a detailed study of the role of common law in environmental protection. Examines the interrelationship of common law and statutes in determining liability among defendants in enforcement and Superfund actions. Considers issues of environmental federalism, toxic torts, citizen suits, sovereign immunity, and interstate waste flow. Students must have taken Environmental Law. Breen

Advanced Environmental Law: Liability and Torts (3)
Focuses on advanced issues in liability under federal environmental law, particularly advanced issues in Superfund, and an extensive survey of common law issues of environmental torts. In addition, the course surveys issues of environmental federalism, including commerce clause and choice of law issues arising in environmental cases. Breen (Spring)

Advanced Environmental Law: Water Pollution Control (2)
 Conducts an extensive review of the Clean Water Act and the role of the federal government and states in establishing water pollution control standards. Attention is devoted to the science-based principles and technology standards upon which effluent limits are promulgated. Also examines the Safe Drinking Water Act. Markowitz

 
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