Search: Boalt School of Law, Environmental Legislation and Policy

This introductory course is designed to explore fundamental legal and policy issues in environmental law. By focusing on constitutional issues and a limited number of federal statutes--principally the the Administrative Procedure Act, the Clean Air Act; the Clean Water Act; CERCLA (the Superfund law),; the National Environmental Policy Act; and the Endangered Species Act--the course exposes students to the principal approaches to environmental law (litigation, command and control regulation, market incentives, and providing information), as well as to the challenges of setting environmental policy goals and choosing policy targets. The course is designed both for students who intend to pursue environmental studies further and for those who simply want to gain a basic understanding of this key area of public policy.

This class provides an overview of the most important legal tools in the United States for the protection of biodiversity. The course begins with a short overview of the history of wildlife law in the United States. It then turns to a detailed examination of the most important statute for protecting biodiversity in the United States, the Endangered Species Act. The course wraps up with an overview of the most important habitat protection statutes (particularly wetlands protection under the Clean Water Act), constitutional limits on biodiversity protection, and a glimpse at emerging issues such as control of invasive species and international environmental law. Though the class focuses on the legal structure for protecting biodiversity, it will also explore important policy questions such as the role of science and politics in decisionmaking, the meaning and value of diversity, and assessments of the success or failure of the ESA.

The global crisis in oceans resources is one of the major issues in both international law and environmental law for the 21st century. In this course, students will participate in weekly class discussion of materials relating to the history of ocean resource management and other aspects of ocean law (navigation, pollution, jurisdiction offshore, naval security, etc.), with most of the course concentrating on the UN Law of the Sea Convention and its implementation since 1982. We will analyze through study of treaties and commentaries the character and operations of various regional ocean organizations in which, under many multilateral agreements, environmental protection, fisheries and whaling, exploitation of marine genetic resources, and other issues have been addressed. One segment of the course will consider the various mechanisms and institutions of dispute settlement in ocean conflicts. Visiting speakers from practice and the international judiciary occasionally participate. Grading is based on class participation, including an oral report, and a paper.