Environmental Law and Policy
Schools of Public Engagement: Milano
CRN: 17196
Credits: 3
This course provides a comprehensive exploration of environmental law, examining both domestic U.S. statutes and international legal frameworks through a critical and transformative lens. The course adopts an intersectional approach, scrutinizing how environmental law intersects with and often replicates existing power asymmetries along race, class, and gender lines. By contrasting the U.S. legal system with international environmental law, students will gain critical perspectives on how legal principles can evolve to better protect the environment and promote justice. In the first part of the course, we will examine major U.S. federal environmental statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Endangered Species Act, while critically analyzing their effectiveness and limitations. In the second half of the course, we will delve into international environmental law, exploring tensions and synergies between overlapping international and domestic environmental legal regimes. Through case studies and contemporary issues such as climate migration, plastics pollution, and ecocide, students will learn to interrogate and reimagine environmental protection methods for the 21st century and the ongoing planetary crises. Throughout the semester, we will engage with subaltern perspectives and justice-oriented frameworks, challenging traditional approaches to environmental law. Students will be encouraged to think strategically about regulatory design choices, criteria for decision-making, and the role of power in shaping environmental law and policy. We will also interrogate how the law and lawyers may create and perpetuate injustice by upholding systems of oppression and dispossession based on capitalism, neocolonialism, white supremacy, and the patriarchy.
College: Schools of Public Engagement (NS)
Department: Milano (MIL)
Campus: New York City (GV)
Course Format: Seminar (R)
Modality: In-Person
Max Enrollment: 15
Add/Drop Deadline: September 9, 2024 (Monday)
Online Withdrawal Deadline: November 17, 2024 (Sunday)
Seats Available: Yes
Status: Closed*
* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 3:30am EST 11/5/2024