History of Natural Resources Law

• Semester: Spring 2025
• Course ID: 391E
• Credit Hours: 3
• Unique: 29204

Description

This is a course about the ideas, historical developments, and places that shaped American natural resource law and policy. We will read excerpts written by the philosophers that influenced the Founding Fathers, as well as writings by influential Native Americans. We will read about the circumstances that led to the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the repercussions of the removal process. Through a review of legal cases, regulations, and treatises, and historical events such as the Gold Rush of 1848, completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the Homestead Act of 1862, we will examine the historical and legal framework that underlies public lands policy and the extent to which the framework facilitates or impedes the policy changes needed to address modern challenges, such as climate change and the extreme polarization of the American electorate and policymakers.