Disasters and the Law

Background readings will be discussed in the early part of the semester, but the primary focus will be on student research papers. The tentative plan is that the papers will be the basis of a report surveying post-Katrina legal issues, which will be disseminated on-line or otherwise. The issues cut across many fields of law, including disaster planning and prevention, torts/compensation/, environmental, land use planning, social justice, tax and insurance/reinsurance