This introductory course examines the variety of federal legal
mechanisms that protect the environment, focusing principally on several
major environmental statutes such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water
Act, Endangered Species Act, NEPA, RCRA, and CERCLA and the regulatory
mechanisms that implement them. In addition to studying statutes and
their implementation in some detail, we will also consider a range of
policy approaches to regulation, e.g., market-based versus prescriptive
or information-based approaches, the methods of assessment that underlie
these approaches to regulation, and their suitability to address
various rapidly developing environmental issues such as controlling
greenhouse gases to limit climate change. We will also think
strategically, from both industry and environmentalist perspectives,
about how environmental law can be used as an instrument of social
change. A prior course on administrative law is helpful, but is not a
prerequisite.