This course surveys environmental law in the United States from its 19th century roots in the common law to the explosion of legislation and regulation that began in the 1970's and continues through the present. Beyond gaining basic competence in navigating the major laws that govern environment and public health protection, the course will introduce students to the regulatory state. Ways that courts, Congress, and agencies sometimes work together and sometimes act at cross purposes in developing regulatory programs will become evident as we tour the major regulatory programs that have evolved over the last thirty years. In addition to examining institutional peculiarities of regulation, the course will also consider the disparate types of inputs that inform environmental regulatory programs - values, economics, and science - and how conflicts over these inputs can lead to some surprising compromises in statutory and regulatory outputs. The course will survey six major statutes, with particular emphasis on laws regulating air and water pollution and hazardous substance use and disposal and more abbreviated coverage of the laws protecting endangered species and public resources. Students completing the Survey course will be well-positioned to take one or more advanced environmental law courses in future semesters, although the Survey course is not a prerequisite for enrollment in any of the advanced environmental law classes. Students who have already taken an advanced or an analogous survey course in environmental law may not enroll in this introductory Survey course.
Wagner, Wendy E.