Graduate Certificate in Environmental Law and Policy

The EI offers a graduate certificate in environmental law and policy to environmental and policy professionals.

 

This graduate certificate offers a credential in environmental law and policy for individuals with a background in various science, engineering, social science and humanities fields who wish to understand the theory and practice of environmental and natural resource law at the national, comparative or international level. It is especially valuable for those in environmental fields who come in contact with the law in the course of their work, to policy makers at all levels of government who routinely handle legal affairs, to lawyers without specific training in environmental law, and to business people who want to know what the law says about the legality of their business’ impact on the natural environment. The certificate also can be preparation for further studies in law, policy, or politics or for professional positions in the private or public sector. Certificate courses can be counted toward the M.A. Degree in Environmental Policy Design, as appropriate.

 

 

 

Core Courses In Environmental Law

 

ES 431 U.S. Environmental Law I: Pollution & Risk Abatement (3)

 

ES 432 U.S. Environmental Law II: Natural Resources & Public Lands (3)

 

ES 433 International Environmental Law & Policy (3)

 

ES 443 Comparative Environmental Law & Policy (3)

 

 

Core Courses In Policy Analysis, Valuation & The Law

 

ES 401 Philosophical-Policy and Environmental Legal Design (3)

 

ES 435 Environmental Valuation For Policy Design & Legal Analysis (3)

 

ES/PS 455 Environmental Justice & the Law (3)

 

ES 497 Information Ecology (3)

 

 

 

A basic class for graduate students on the idea of policy design, as opposed to standard economic analysis of public policy and its application to various domestic and international environmental dilemmas. The course will also introduce the idea of Philosophical-Policy, or the use of integrated philosophical systems to justify specific policy design arguments, through the use of two distinct theoretical paradigms that focus on, specifically, the integrity of the natural environment and the capabilities of humans in relation to ecosystems. Gillroy/ Holland.

 

ES 431. U.S. Environmental Law I: Pollution and Risk Abatement (3)

The study of bureaucracy and problems of public and nonprofit organization and management; executive leadership; personnel management systems and regulatory administration. Gillroy

 

ES 432. U.S. Environmental Law II: Natural Resources & Public Lands (3)

This course combines a study of natural resources law with an understanding of the politics and legal processes that create, change, and regulate the economic use of nature. It studies extraction law from two models of regulation: the Market Sector Approach and the Ecosystem Approach. Using these two standards for charting the relationship between humanity and nature, students will analyze timber, water, mineral extraction, public lands regulations, wildlife, wilderness and federal planning and environmental impact assessment in terms of their ethical, political, economic and policy components. Gillroy

 

ES 433 International Environmental Law & Policy (3)

This course examines the basic international legal setting for the protection and management of the global environment. It examines how international law concerning nature is made and applied, the role of international environmental regimes or institutions, enforcement strategies, and compliance mechanisms. Emphasis will be placed on a review of various regulatory regimes for the protection of the global commons, including the history and legal sources of the Global Climate Change Convention. Gillroy

 

ES 435. Environmental Valuation For Policy Design & Legal Analysis (3)

Reviewing the history and legal context that gave rise to the current use of the “contingent valuation method” for pricing environmental resources, this course assesses empirical and normative strengths of this method, as well as the weaknesses that challenge its effectiveness and political legitimacy. Students will evaluate the recent turn to “deliberative” methods of resource valuation and consider empirical and normative problems that deliberative methods address. Holland.

 

ES 443 Comparative Environmental Law & Policy (3)

This course studies the different ways in which domestic legal systems handle the regulation of humanity’s relationship to the natural world. The first part of the course concentrates on comparative law that examines the evolution of distinct types of legal systems from their origins in the ancient world. The second part of the course specifically and comparatively examines environmental law as it has developed in Canada, China, the European Union and the United States. Ranges of alternatives for environmental law and policy as practiced in various parts of the world will be explored. Gillroy

 

ES/PS 455 Environmental Justice and the Law (3)

This course explores the various ways in which environmental law and policy can have discriminatory effects. It examines the rise and evolution of environmental justice movement, and the impact of environmental justice claims on administrative rule making at state and federal level. Reviewing the history of case law concerning environmental justice suits filed under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, it also examines the future of environmental justice in environmental law and policy. Holland

 

ES/SSP 497. Information Ecology (3)

Information theory, critical theory, systems theory, and ecological principles are used to model individual cognition, social organization and human ecosystems. Course concepts are applied to environmental policy analysis using case studies. Casagrande.