ENVL-345 : Advanced Environmental Litigation

Advanced Environmental Litigation Seminar This seminar will explore the pitfalls and opportunities that often arise in environmental disputes from the perspective of the parties (companies, governments, citizen groups, and indigenous groups) that commonly find themselves in those disputes. This discussion-based seminar will be divided into four parts: -Introduction to the parties, types of disputes, and forums for resolving those disputes; -Litigating at state and federal agencies, including building an administrative record, hearings before agencies, internal appeals, and preserving issues for appeal; -Litigating in state and federal courts, including drafting complaints, motions practice, discovery and expert witness issues, settlement, and trial; and -Environmental civil and criminal enforcement, including the life-cycle of enforcement actions, how actions are resolved, and special considerations of civil settlements. The culmination of this course will be the preparation of a Litigation Strategy Memorandum. Students will pick an environmental dispute that interests them, pick a party in that dispute to represent (e.g. government, private party, citizen group), and draft a memorandum analyzing how the topics we discuss in class would apply to and inform the strategy that the party should take in the dispute. This course addresses the role of international law in global environmental protection and to a range of issues raised by humankind's ecological impacts. After a brief overview of international law, the course analyzes and critiques the legal regimes that have developed to address specific global environmental crises. Among the crises addressed in the course are global warming, climate change, biological diversity, freshwater sources, oceans and marine life, species extinction, and global trade in hazardous waste. Special attention is devoted to the conflict between "Global North" and "Global South" over responsibility for environmental protection and to the relationship between global environmental protection and sustainable development, human rights, armed conflict, international trade and international finance. Over the course of the semester, students will research and write a paper on a topic of their interest. Public International Law is recommended but not required. No prerequisites.