LL 479.01 Environmental Law and Policy:New Frontiers (Fall 2007-2008: 3)

Prerequisite: None, although prior introduction to Environmental Law and Policy is helpful.
Corequisite: None
Property: Land Law and Environmental Law
This advanced seminar, taught by two senior environmental attorneys with extensive policy experience, each year addresses selected issues from the broad realm of environmental law and policy, the nature of sustainability, the notion of wilderness, the role of social equity and environmental justice and the management of common resources,among others. We examine how to resolve emerging, high-profile environmental challenges by applying legal and non-legal thought and action in a more unified way. Although prior introduction to environmental law and policy is helpful, it is not necessary and no prerequisites exist. The course also provides a strong grounding in alternative dispute resolution. In Fall 2007 the focus will be on climate change: anthropogenic Global Warming. Anne Kelly has had a distinguished career in state administrative environmental protection law, criminal and civil, in private practice focusing on mediation and negotiation, and working with CERES on an internationally precedent-setting carbon generation issue involving the green buyout of the coal-burning TXU mega-projects in Texas. Matt Pawa has been involved in a number of global warming related campaigns (with help from BCLS interns and alumni!) , currently litigating a national-level public nuisance action against five major coal-fired utilities, a case that is likely to go to the U.S. Supreme Court in the not too distant future. Class participation will figure in as 30% of the final grade, and each student will produce a strategy memorandum related to a selected law and policy issue raised by global warming and climate change, addressing the legal and meta-legal aspects of a particular environmental challenge presented by the subject (70%).
Anne Kelly and Matthew Pawa

Last Updated: 21-FEB-08