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ADMISSIONS > Courses >
The following courses are available for those interested in environmental law:
Environmental Law and Policy
This course explores fundamental legal and policy issues in environmental law. By focusing on a limited number of statutes-principally the Clean Air Act, the hazardous waste statutes, and the National Environmental Policy Act-students study in detail the principal methods of regulation, as well as important environmental issues such as the role of citizens in enforcement, the value of provisions forcing agency action, the role of judicial review, and the optimal allocation of regulatory authority between federal and state governments.
Environmental Law Writing Seminar
Each student in this seminar produces a short research paper to be published in the Ecology Law Quarterly and takes part in rich intellectual discourse on environmental policy.
Environmental Litigation
The course explores three universal stages of the litigation process: analyzing potential theories of liability and defenses, determining the appropriate targets for recovery, and selecting the desired remedy. Within each stage, the class focuses on the peculiarities of the law governing soil and groundwater contamination, and other strategic considerations unique to the environmental arena.
Environmental Pollution
A seminar for those interested in working in the environmental field, this class is designed to immerse students in the complexities of litigation involving environmental pollution. Practical, realistic approaches to environmental advocacy and achieving results in the courtroom will be emphasized. Upon completion of the course, students will have a sophisticated appreciation of the tactical intricacies of litigation involving pollution.
This course explores three universal stages of the litigation process, all in the context of environmental pollution: (i) analyzing potential theories of liability and available defenses; (ii) determining the appropriate targets for recovery; and (iii) selecting the desired remedy. Within each stage, the class will focus on the peculiarities of the law governing pollution, as well as the strategic considerations unique to the environmental arena. Students will be exposed to the latest developments regarding the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 9601, et seq.), the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 6901, et seq.) and certain relevant state law schemes; the intersection of the judicial and administrative processes in environmental litigation; and insurance issues stemming from environmental pollution claims.
Mr. Infelise welcomes your participation.
Environmental Remedies
This course provides students with a sophisticated understanding of the range of remedies available to plaintiffs in environmental litigation, both public and private. The class focuses on the remedies and defenses available under the common law, the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, and the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
International Environmental Law
This seminar examines the role of law in the management of the international environment. Consideration is given to international environmental treaties; the role of the international Court of Justice in identifying and establishing international environmental law; international regulation of private conduct that affects the environment; and the effects of international trade, financial institutions, human rights and armed conflict on the environment.
Land-Use Planning and Control
This course examines traditional land-use controls. Areas covered include zoning and private covenants; environmental programs arising from the environmental decade of the 1970s, such as comprehensive planning, private transfers of entitlements, environmental impact assessment, citizen action, and state and federal mandates; and countervailing constraints on public authority imposed in the last decade by increasingly restrictive constitutional and statutory doctrine.
Ocean Law and Policy
This course examines ocean law from a historical perspective and provides a survey and analysis of contemporary ocean-resource issues in both international relations and U.S. constitutional law and public policy.
Professional Responsibility for Environmental Litigation
Public Land Law
The subject matter of this course is federal public land used primarily as a commodity, and for preservation of nature and recreation. Taught as a discussion group to a small number of students, this class includes readings on the purposes and uses of public lands, as well as materials dealing with related statutes and court decisions.
Water Law
This course emphasizes western water law, with special attention to California. It deals at some length with public rights in water, the public trust, area of origin claims, federal and Indian reserved rights, and interstate controversies. Water pollution is dealt with only peripherally. The theme of the course is that water is a distinctive species of property, a community resource that can never be fully privatized and that must be used in the public interest.
Workshop on Environmental Policy
The workshop is an opportunity for students to work directly with and counsel governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) on issues involving environmental law and policy. Working in small groups, students choose from a variety of assignments involving environmental and land-use law, work directly with in-house counsel to shape the scope of the assignments, and produce a written product suitable for the organization's needs. Students also meet intermittently to discuss issues of general concern, such as ethical considerations, satisfying client expectations, and reconciling personal values and the client's goals.
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