Environmental Law Survey
LAW 814 | 2-3 Hours
This introductory course will focus on the variety of legal mechanisms we use to address environmental harms such as air and water pollution, global climate change, and habitat destruction. The course will ordinarily cover environmental planning under the National Environmental Policy Act and related state statutes; traditional command-and-control regulation of pollution under, for example, the Clean Air Act and/or the Clean Water Act; protection of species and their critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act; and the effects of global climate change and environmental justice concerns on environmental law and litigation in the United States. Attention may also be given to statutes governing the regulation of toxic substances; statutes governing public lands; limits imposed on federal regulatory authority by recent developments in Commerce-Clause, Takings-Clause, and standing jurisprudence; market and tax alternatives to direct regulation; and the use of cost-benefit analysis in the environmental context.