CORE CURRICULUM
The concentration in environmental and land use law includes seventeen courses from which students may choose. These cover topics ranging from administrative law to international environmental law, land use, transportation and infrastructure, local government, legislation, natural resources, and environmental liability litigation. Full descriptions
SEMINARS AND INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
Seminars offer in-depth investigation of special issues. Recent seminars include Environmental Ethics, Environmental Liability Litigation, Federal Land and Natural Resources, Urban Law and Policy, and Environmentalism and the Supreme Court.
Students can also receive credit for independent research on environmental issues. Recent topics include global climate change, watershed management in South Africa's Limpopo Province, land conservation in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and regional land use and growth-management policies.
ENVIRONMENTAL Law and Conservation CLINIC
Students in this semester-long clinic participate in a range of activities related to the protection and restoration of natural resources and environmental quality. The clinic represents and counsels environmental nonprofits, citizen’s groups, and community organizations seeking to protect and restore the environment of the mid-Atlantic region and other parts of the country. The clinic also actively explores more cooperative means of conserving and restoring natural resources.
ADMINISTRATIVE
LAW Mr. Harrison, Ms. Magill, Mr.
Ortiz, or Mr. Merrill (4 credits) This
course examines the law regulating the operation of administrative
agencies, including preeminently the EPA and other environmental
agencies. It considers not only the need for agencies and
their legal authority, but also their lawmaking procedures
and the legal checks imposed on their operations. The course
also considers political constraints on agency action and
how the law both seeks and fails to regulate these political
influences.
BUILDING BRIDGES: TRANSPORTATION AND
ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS AFFECTING INFRASTRUCTURE Mr.
Milliken (3) This seminar
examines the application of certain transportation, environmental
and land-use laws to the design and construction of large transportation
projects, including highways and bridges, airport and rail projects.
The course uses as examples current projects in Virginia, including
the Woodrow Wilson Bridge crossing of the Potomac River and the
extension of the Washington area Metrorail system to Dulles International
Airport, as well as projects in other parts of the country. The
seminar also examines the recent and growing use of Public Private
Partnerships to finance these projects. Students explore the
hurdles public agencies must clear in getting projects approved,
as well as the tools opponents use to alter or stop those projects.
Ecosystem Management: Law and Policy Mr. Cannon This seminar addresses the challenges of managing environmental issues in the context of the human-natural systems within which they occur. These challenges include defining the character and scope of ecosystems; establishing the goals appropriate to managing ecosystems; and assessing institutional arrangements to achieve those goals. The inquiry covers diverse problems (from biodiversity loss to watershed degradation and urban sprawl) occurring at multiple scales (from the local to the regional and global). It concentrates on problems that are not adequately addressed by conventional environmental management regimes and on solutions that cut across existing institutional and jurisdictional lines. Readings include emerging theoretical approaches, such as collaborative and adaptive management, and case studies designed to illustrate and test the theories.
ENVIRONMENTALISM AND THE SUPREME COURT Mr.
Cannon (1) This short course explores the U.S. Supreme
Court’s
response to the modern environmental movement. Looking at selected
decisions from the last 35 years, students will examine the Court’s
acceptance or rejection of environmentalist beliefs and values
and try to discern the sources of the Court’s response.
The inquiry will include comparisons to the Court’s treatment
of the other great social movement of the last half of the 20th
century, civil rights. Constitutional rulings and statutory interpretations
are considered.
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS Mr. Cannon and Mr. Childress or Mr. Jenkins (3) Environmental policy is rooted in concepts of the value of nature and our responsibility to protect it. This seminar focuses on the ethical dimensions of the choices we make—individually and collectively—that affect the environment.Jointly led by an ethicist and an environmental lawyer, it examines views about the right relationship between humans and the world in which we find ourselves. These include utilitarian theories (including economic approaches); religious and cultural perspectives; environmental justice; ecocentric and biocentric theories; theories of the rights of animals and nature; deep ecology, ecofeminism, and placebased environmental ethics; and obligations to future generations.
ENVIRONMENTAL
LAW Mr. Cannon
(3) This
course gives students a basic grasp of the laws and the concepts
that have developed with the environmental movement, the legal
practice that has grown up around them, and their potential for
change. It addresses both conservation (e.g., Endangered Species
Act) and pollution control (e.g., Clean Air and Clean Water Acts).
Although the primary focus is on federal legislation and regulatory
programs, the course explores some local, state, and international
dimensions. It also looks at emerging directions in environmental
law and policy, including partnerships and voluntary measures,
emissions trading, and taxes, subsidies, and other incentives.
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW II Mr.
Cannon and Mr. Merrill (2) This course explores
federal laws that address the dissemination of toxic chemicals
in the environment. These include the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation and Liability Act or Superfund, which
assigns liability for the cleanup of contaminated sites and
accounts for the bulk of federal environmental litigation,
and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which establishes “cradle-to-grave” regulation
of hazardous waste. The class also explores the regulation of
toxic substances in useful products, including the Federal Insecticide,
Fungicide and Rodenticide Act and the Toxic Substances Control
Act. Topics include: how regulators assess the risks posed by
toxic substances and hazardous wastes; how best to manage these
risks; whether federal laws are providing the right level of
protection in the most efficient manner; and the impact of these
laws on markets and corporate behavior, including mergers and
acquisitions. Although designed together to provide comprehensive
exposure to federal environmental regulatory law, Environmental
Law I and II are freestanding courses. A student may take either
or both, simultaneously or sequentially, as the course schedule
permits.
Environmental Law and Federalism Mr. Jaffe (3) This seminar focuses on the real-world impact that “new federalism” is having on environmental law and policy at both the federal and state levels. The course blends discussions of key federalism decisions from the Supreme Court and lower federal courts with case studies modeled on current public policy and political disputes. The seminar may consider federal and state responses to concerns about wetlands depletion, loss of endangered species, air pollution, and global warming.
ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYERING: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE Mr. Cannon/Mr. Szeptycki (3) This course is about the tasks of lawyers representing clients in environmental disputes, from rule-making to litigation to negotiation. The course develops several case simulations based on actual proceedings. These include interpreting the requirements of the Clean Water Act for local watersheds, litigation involving endangered species, and Clean Air Act enforcement. The cases involve a range of parties, including property owners, developers, and environmental groups as well as governmental agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. Students draft documents (memoranda, pleadings, etc.) and engage in hearings and negotiations on behalf of clients.
ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY LITIGATION Mr. Cannon/Mr. Merrill/Mr. Walker (3) This seminar deals with both public enforcement of environmental standards and private suits that seek to curb environmental hazards or recover damage for harms attributed to such hazards. The practical process of bringing private actions for so-called toxic torts receives particular attention.Special attention is also given to the problem of proving that a pollutant or a product was in fact the cause of harm.
ENVIRONMENTAL Law and Conservation PRACTICE CLINIC Mr. Szeptycki (3) Students in this semester-long clinic participate in a range of activities related to the protection and restoration of natural resources and environmental quality. The clinic represents and counsels environmental nonprofits, citizen’s groups, and community organizations seeking to protect and restore the environment of the mid-Atlantic region and other parts of the country. Although much of the work consists of traditional legal advocacy, such as commenting on rules, participating in permit proceedings, and litigation, the clinic also actively explores more cooperative means of conserving and restoring natural resources. Where appropriate, students conduct research and analysis to develop innovative solutions to environmental problems. Student activities include drafting a variety of documents, including comments and briefs; factual investigation; and providing legal advice and other counseling. The clinic includes a weekly meeting/seminar to discuss matters pending before the clinic and to provide conceptual context for the clinic’s work. Students seeking to enroll in the clinic must submit a statement of interest to the instructor.
FEDERAL LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES [Seminar] Mr. Carr (3) The seminar will survey the laws and policies governing the management of lands and natural resources under federal ownership (some one-third of the nation's continental land area). Beginning with the history of federal land policy, the seminar will focus on issues relating to public lands, including national forests and parks, minerals, timber, fish and wildlife, endangered species, water, recreation, preservation of unique values, and occupancy uses.
INDEPENDENT RESEARCH (1–3) Students can receive credit for independent research on environmental issues under the supervision of a faculty member. Recent student research topics have included global climate change; the use of referendums in land use regulation; CITES, elephants and the ivory ban; and watershed management in South Africa's Limpopo Province.
INTERNATIONAL
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW Mr. Setear (3) This
course examines the legal, political and scientific aspects
of problems of biodiversity and atmospheric pollution that
are the subject of international treaties. Legal analyses
focus on the texts of those treaties, as well as relevant
U.S. domestic law and some international trade law. The course
includes a series of simulated international negotiating
and drafting sessions aimed at reaching agreement on a climate
change treaty.
LAND USE LAW Mr.
Ryan or Mr. Cannon (3) Federal environmental programs
generally avoid regulation of land use, even though land-development
patterns and practices can have important environmental effects.
This course focuses on the legal control of land use by state
and local governments. It covers the basic elements of land
development and regulation, including the basics of zoning
and planning. It also addresses constitutional constraints
on land-use regulation, including those imposed by the First
Amendment and the Fifth Amendment's Taking Clause; housing
discrimination on the grounds of race, income, and lifestyle; “environmental
justice” issues;
and land-use law as environmental regulation.
LEGISLATION Mr.
Harrison (3) While
much of basic American law is unwritten, statutes, constitutions,
and other forms of written law are pervasive, especially at the
federal level. This is certainly the case with the vast body
of federal environmental law that has emerged over the last
three decades. This course is concerned with statutes, and
in particular, with the process that creates them, the methods
courts and others use to interpret them, and the relationship
between the legislative process and statutory interpretation.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
LAW Mr. Schragger
(3) Local government law examines both the theoretical
bases for decentralized government and the specific functions
of local governments in the American legal and political system.
The course utilizes legal cases as well as political and social
theory in considering the proper distribution of powers among
federal, state, regional, and local institutions. This inquiry
has important implications for the allocation of authority
for environmental decisionmaking at different spatial scales.
MASS TORTS Mr. Feinberg
(3) This course presents
a comprehensive review of the legal issues associated with the
growing phenomenon of mass torts, e.g., tobacco, Agent Orange,
Dalkon Shield, asbestos, personal injury litigation, etc. The
course emphasizes such issues as determining medical scientific
causation (including the issue of expert testimony), consolidation
of state and federal litigation in one forum, judicial determination
of who should appropriately manage the litigation for both plaintiffs
and defendants, and punitive damages. The role of insurance,
the unique issue of future claims, the development of procedures
for processing of mass tort claims, issues associated with congressional
intervention, and the Federal September 11th Victim Compensation
Fund are also covered. The overriding question of whether the
courts can dispense individual justice in cases involving thousands
of litigants is explored.
PROPERTY THEORY Ms.
BeVier and Ms. Mahoney (3) This seminar examines theories
of property, including natural rights and utilitarian theories.
The seminar focuses on the rigorous evaluation of scholarly argument.
Readings consist of classic works in the field and important
contemporary contributions. After a several-week overview of
the field, each session is devoted to an intensive study of a
single law review article, with designated students criticizing
or defending that article.
Tragedies of the Commons and Anticommons Ms. Fennell (3) This seminar explores the tragedies of the commons and anticommons as conceptual templates within property theory and as lenses for understanding concrete legal problems in natural resource, real property, and intellectual property contexts. The standard “tragedy of the commons” story focuses on the tendency for multiple parties with access to a given resource to use it in a way that degrades its value for the group. The “anticommons” tragedy involves the dispersal of veto rights over a resource’s access to multiple parties—a situation that can prevent anyone from accessing the resource. Moving between broader theoretical questions and specific applications, the course examines the conditions that create these tragedies, the problems that they present, and possible ways of addressing them. Important dilemmas are presented by different kinds of resources—from natural resources like water, fish, and grazing lands, to urban land that might be assembled or configured in various ways, to cyberspace and various intellectual products.
URBAN LAW AND POLICY Mr. R. Schragger (3) This seminar examines the legal, economic, and political forces that have shaped American metropolitan areas with particular attention to the policies that have shaped American cities and suburbs. The course considers issues such as sprawl, racial segregation, housing, education, land use, concentrated poverty, and community economic development.
Water Law Mr. Szeptycki (3) Rivers, streams, lakes, and groundwater are subject to a diverse array of competing uses, including withdrawals for human use, receiving discharges of pollution, the generation of hydropower, and as habitat for aquatic life. The allocation of water and the resolution of disputes between competing water uses are governed by an array of state and federal laws. The course initially studies the two primary water law systems in the United States—the riparian system in the East and the prior appropriation system in the West. The course also examines public rights to water resources and mechanisms for resolving water-use disputes and protecting the environmental quality of lakes, rivers, and streams. Other topics include federal laws that affect the allocation and use of water, including the Clean Water Act, the Federal Power Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the law governing interstate water disputes.
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