Administrative Law
When agencies with limited political accountability make important
regulatory decisions, they can gain judicial, legislative, and
executive power as a result. This course explores the constitutional
and rule-of-law difficulties created by this allocation of power, and
examines how administrative agencies make law, the kind of law they
produce, and the scope of judicial review of agency decision making.
Administrative Law and Regulatory Policy
This course focuses on the law of the administrative state. Its three major
themes are: (1) the existence of politcal pressures that the law seeks, yet often fails,
to regulate effectively; (2) the impact of agencies' substantive work on their performance;
and (3) the importance of lawyers' differing roles as litigators, lobbyists, institutional
designers, and political actors in the administrative state.
Energy Law and Policy
This course surveys U.S. law and policy concerning energy. Half the
course addresses electricity, and the remainder focuses on coal, oil,
natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power, and alternative fuels as ways
to produce electricity, as well as the continuing physical and
financial restructuring of electrical transmission and distribution
systems.
Environmental Clinic
The Environmental Law Clinic
at Stanford offers students an opportunity to provide legal and
technical assistance to nonprofit organizations on a variety of
environmental issues, focusing primarily on natural resource
conservation and protection. The clinic focuses on helping students
develop sound professional judgment and strong advocacy skills, with a
particular emphasis on the use of scientific information in the legal
and policy-making arenas.
Environmental Law: Pollution
Making extensive use of case studies, this introductory course
focuses on domestic issues of pollution control and prevention, solid
waste disposal, and regulation of toxic substances, and looks at the
roles of legislation, administrative decision making, the common law,
and voter initiatives in addressing environmental problems.
International Environmental Law
This course examines the effective legal and political resolution
of transnational environmental issues, including acid rain, global
atmospheric and ionospheric concerns such as global warming and the
protection of the ozone layer, tropical deforestation, and oceanic and
international river basin pollution.
Land Use Law
Using simulations, case studies, lectures, and class discussions, this
course focuses on the pragmatic aspects of contemporary land use
law. Questions examined include whether or not the legal system should
rely on comprehensive planning or the market to accommodate conflicts
over land use, which issues should be controlled by government or
private owners, and how these decisions affect environmental quality.
Law and Science of California Coastal Policy
This interdisciplinary course integrates the legal, science, and policy dimensions of
characterizing and managing our coastal resources in California. The course focuses on the land-sea interface
and explores contemporary coastal land use and marine resource decision-making.
Natural Resources Law and Policy
Using case studies and primary policy materials, this course looks at
how our society regulates the use of natural resources, including
public ownership and preservation of natural resources through other
federal and state public lands. The course also examines major federal
environmental statutes designed to protect natural resources,
including the Endangered Species Act.
Water Law and Policy
This course examines how the law allocates water among competing
consumptive and in-stream uses (including recreational use and
preservation) and protects water quality under state and federal
law. Because water is regulated differently than land and other
natural resources, water law provides an opportunity to reexamine and
critique many commonly held assumptions about property, such as the
asserted advantages of exclusive property rights.
Advanced Negotiation
This course takes students beyond the two-party lawyer-client dealings
that are the focus of Stanford's basic negotiation classes to learn
effective negotiation of complex, multiparty disputes, including
environmental disputes.
Animal Law
This course provides a survey of the law's understanding and treatment of animals by looking
at the development of federal and state policies on wild, domestic, and companion animals.
Specific topics include the history of animal law, the concept of animals as property, the
application of tort and remedies law to injuries by and to pets, protection of animals by
cruelty and other laws, as well as constitutional issues raised in cases involving animals.
Climate Change
This course analyzes the legal structure of the Climate Change
Convention as it has evolved through the Framework Convention, the
Berlin Mandate, the Kyoto Protocol, and the 4th Conference of the
Parties.
Environmental Law and Policy Workshop
Students in this seminar examine and critique current research and
policy in the field, engage in their own research and writing, and
discuss current topics with visiting practitioners, policy makers, and
academics.
Environmental Ethics
Concentrating on how and why lawyers make decisions with ethical
dimensions, this course explores the nature and content of the
dominant value systems present in government, private practice firms,
and advocacy public interest groups.
Environmental Justice: A Multidisciplinary Introduction
This course begins with a brief overview of the environmental
problems faced by low-income communities and communities of color, as
well as the structural and societal factors contributing to those
problems. The course then uses case studies to illustrate the
scientific, technical, economic, political, and legal issues in
environmental justice.
Legal Aspects of Biodiversity
This seminar explores one of the strongest tensions in contemporary
environmental law: the need to conserve biodiversity, on the one hand,
and private property rights on the other. The seminar presents the
concepts of biodiversity and the scientific and economic arguments for
conserving it, then reviews existing regulatory structures and
explores a variety of realistic alternatives.
Markets, the Law, and the Environment
This course examines the interface between economics and law in the
use of market approaches to environmental problems. After an
introduction to "free market environmentalism," the course
concentrates on public and private approaches to land, wildlife, and
water management, with an emphasis on the practical applications of
contract and property law.
Pesticide Regulation
This seminar provides quasi-clinical experience in the
multidisciplinary analysis and resolution of environmental problems
related to pesticide use and regulation.
Ocean Policy
This course examines the resources of the oceans and the efforts to
regulate their use through laws and treaties, including the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Marine
Mammal Protection Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, and the
Endangered Species Act. The course also covers international fishery
problems and the attempts to regulate the take of highly migratory
species, such as tuna and whales, by international treaty.
Science & Legal Decisions
This seminar explores mechanisms for making the scientific
determinations that affect legal actions. The course uses a series of
case studies involving various decision makers, such as the court and
jury in the bendectin and breast implant litigation, administrative
agencies such as the FDA and its evaluations of drugs, Congress and
its response to acid rain, and international organizations such as the
WTO and its response to "mad cow disease."
Toxic Harms: Tort & Alternative Control Strategies
The central question of this course is whether tort law effectively
compensates victims of toxic exposure and controls the distribution
and/or emission of toxic substances.
Law and Science of California Coastal Policy
This interdisciplinary course integrates the legal, science, and policy dimensions of
characterizing and managing our coastal resources in California. The course focuses on the land-sea interface
and explores contemporary coastal land use and marine resource decision-making.
Natural Resources Law and Policy
Using case studies and primary policy materials, this course looks at
how our society regulates the use of natural resources, including
public ownership and preservation of natural resources through other
federal and state public lands. The course also examines major federal
environmental statutes designed to protect natural resources,
including the Endangered Species Act.
Water Law and Policy
This course examines how the law allocates water among competing
consumptive and in-stream uses (including recreational use and
preservation) and protects water quality under state and federal
law. Because water is regulated differently than land and other
natural resources, water law provides an opportunity to reexamine and
critique many commonly held assumptions about property, such as the
asserted advantages of exclusive property rights.