Course Catalog

 

LAW 811 - Administrative Law

This course surveys the organization, authority, and procedures of administrative agencies in relation to rulemaking, adjudication, and judicial review of administrative rulings and decisions. The course examines both federal and state agencies.
Credit: 3 Units   Offered: Fall 2010  

LAW 822B - Animal & Wildlife Law

This course begins with a discussion of the ethical bases for legal protection of individual animals and wildlife populations, focusing on where different ethical premises create conflicts over animal protection. The course then reviews several wildlife protection laws, including the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and California's Fully Protected Species Statutes. Finally, the course reviews the legal protections available to individual animals, from their status of property to standing for animals to their ethical treatment in domestic, agricultural, and laboratory settings. Several of San Francisco's unique statutes protecting animals will be reviewed, as well as recent bills proposed in Sacramento pertaining to animal and wildlife law.
Credit: 3 Units  

LAW 834H - California Environmental and Natural Resources Law

California boasts some of the nation's most spectacular environmental resources and some of its worst environmental problems. It also frequently sets national trends with its cutting-edge environmental and natural resource protection laws. This seminar examines some of the state's unique environmental problems and regulatory approaches. Topics covered include: the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); the California Coastal Act and the California Coastal Commission; the California Forest Practices Act; the public trust doctrine; California Wild & Scenic Rivers protection; Stream Alteration Agreements; dams and fisheries passage under the California Fish & Game Code; the California Endangered Species Act, and farmland preservation pursuant to Williamson Act contracts and conservation easements.
Credit: 3 Units  

LAW 834U - Cities & Environmental Law

This course provides an overview of the ways in which environmental and natural resources law (statutory and case law) operate and are implemented in the urban city context. This question will be examined through case studies, with an emphasis on California and the San Francisco Bay Area. The course includes several guest lectures, and will cover such topics as urban waterways (creeks, rivers and San Francisco Bay), cleanup and reuse of brownfields, open space and parks in cities (such as the Presidio and Hunters Point in San Francisco, Alameda Point in Alameda, the Cornfields in Los Angeles, and the East Bay Regional Park District), air quality and environmental justice issues relating to Port diesel emissions (at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach and the Port of Oakland), urban growth boundaries (UGBs) and 5th Amendment takings claims, and urban water supply requirements under California law.
Credit: 3 Units   Offered: Fall 2010  

LAW 871D - Climate Change & International Law

This course focuses on the most challenging environmental issue that this generation and many generations to come must confront, climate change. The course's orientation will be on international institutional responses, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the European Trading System. The course will also examine international causes of action for damages associated with climate change in judicial and quasi-judicial fora, including the International Court of Justice, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the World Heritage Commission and under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Credit: 3 Units   Offered: Summer 2010  

LLM 399 - Directed Study

A Directed Study is an independent study project for LLM students done under the supervision of a faculty member or supervising attorney for academic credit. Directed Study can be taken for 1 to 3 units. The project can be on any topic agreed to by the student, faculty member or supervising attorney, and the LLM program director. Directed Study can be taken for a letter grade or for a Credit/No Credit grade and must be decided at the time of topic approval. All papers submitted under this program should reflect approximately 70 hours of work per unit of credit.
Credit: 1 - 3 Units   Offered: Spring 2010 , Summer 2010 , Fall 2010  

LAW 857A - Energy & Environmental Law

This course surveys the law and regulation of energy production, distribution, and use, with an emphasis on the legal and policy issues at the intersection of energy and environmental law. These issues are examined in the context of the electricity and natural gas industries, giving particular attention to the statutory and administrative framework governing public utilities and the wholesale and retail energy markets. The class provides an introduction to state and national energy policy, and compares local, regional, and global impacts of fossil-based and renewable energy sources on climate change and the natural environment. Students interested in environmental law, natural resources law, water law, administrative law, and international law should consider this course.
Credit: 3 Units   Offered: Fall 2010  

LAW 834C - Environmental Law and Justice Clinic

The Environmental Law & Justice Clinic (ELJC) is an in-house clinic, which provides students with intensive training and hands-on lawyering experience. Under close faculty supervision, students provide legal representation on matters addressing environmental justice issues, including the disproportionate environmental hazards faced by low-income communities and people of color. Clinic students are certified under State Bar of California rules to perform many of the tasks of an attorney: they interview clients, develop legal strategies, draft legal documents, and counsel clients. They may also appear at hearings and negotiate with opposing parties, depending on the Clinic's caseload. Co-requisite: Evidence. Students also must have completed an environmental law course or have the instructors' waiver of this requirement. Special scheduling arrangements can be made on a case-by-case basis for night students. This course is graded on a Credit/No Credit basis.
Credit: 1 - 3 Units   Offered: Spring 2010 , Summer 2010 , Fall 2010  

LAW 834G - Environmental Law and Justice Seminar

The ENVIRONMENTAL LAW & JUSTICE SEMINAR is a required companion course to the Environmental Law & Justice Clinic, but it may also be taken by JD or LLM students who are not enrolling in the Clinic. The Seminar explores law and policy issues central to the environmental justice movement, focusing on matters that recur in the Clinic's representation of clients who are disproportionately impacted by pollution; explores the role of lawyers and their ethical responsibility in representing clients from communities overburdened by pollution; and provides skills training that students must master to become effective lawyers, focusing on skills that are necessary for the Clinic's caseload. Students enrolled in the Seminar by itself, without the Clinic component, will be required to fulfill a significant writing requirement.
Credit: 3 Units   Offered: Spring 2010 , Fall 2010  

LAW 834F - Environmental Law and Policy

This course focuses on the federal Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Students explore federal regulatory strategies, including technology-based requirements, environmental assessment, and enforcement methods, as well as alternatives to traditional regulation such as market-based incentives and information disclosure laws. Students also learn tools of statutory interpretation.
Credit: 3 Units   Offered: Fall 2010  

LAW 834D - Environmental Law Practice Seminar

This course is designed to teach students the skills of environmental practice and advocacy, including the preparation of enforcement actions and defenses, environmental compliance, discovery, and environmental ethics. The emphasis is on hands-on practice exercises, such as drafting complaints, conducting discovery, and participating in environmental negotiations and mediation.
Credit: 2 Units   Offered: Spring 2010  

LAW 834I - Externship: Environmental Law

Students work as externs with governmental agencies, environmental organizations, public interest groups, or private attorneys active in the field of environmental law. Students also participate in a weekly seminar designed to provide them with practical skills and enable them to reflect on their cases and work experiences. This course is graded on a Credit/No Credit basis.
Credit: 2 - 4 Units   Offered: Spring 2010  

LAW 871E - Global Climate Change & Water Law

This course will review and analyze the global warming and climate change issue and related cross-sectoral water resource impacts. The class will review federal policy relating to climate change and whether it preempts state and local initiatives. The course will also examine international treaties and institutions involved (such as the United Nations Task Force on Climate and Water), as well as California's policy, reflecting its leadership role on these issues with specific attention to its strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the state's renewable energy portfolio standard, assessment of climate change impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and statewide water resource planning in light of climate change forecasts. Prerequisite: Environmental Law & Policy.
Credit: 3 Units  

LAW 871R - Global Warming & Renewable Energy

This course will review and analyze the global warming and climate change issue with a specific focus on the potential remedy of renewable energy and its legal implications. The class will review federal policy relating to climate change and whether it preempts state and local initiatives. Emphasis will be given to California's policy, reflecting its leadership role on these issues with specific attention to its strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the state's renewable energy portfolio standard and restrictions on the use and import of coal-based energy.
Credit: 3 Units   Offered: Spring 2010  

LAW 871G - Global Warming & the Courts

Can--and should--the U.S. legal system deal with global warming? This course explores the ability of the courts to address a new and global environmental threat, and the relationship of litigation to the environmental movement and the political branches more broadly. We will consider the use of existing environmental statutes and the common law in addressing global warming in current litigation, the challenges faced by litigants in these cases, and how courts have responded. Class requirements include readings, class participation, and a final paper.
Credit: 2 Units  

LAW 847C - International Environmental Law Seminar

Students examine the law and institutions relevant to managing transboundary, regional, and global environmental problems.
Credit: 3 Units  

LLM 362 - International Environmental Law Seminar

This course will seek to provide an overview of the status of international environmental law in the 21st Century. In so doing, we will explore all of the following questions: Why do States cooperate in developing international environmental norms and regimes, and to what extent? What are the sources of international law, and what legal mechanisms or approaches facilitate the development of international environmental agreements and norms? What mechanisms do we use to facilitate assessment of compliance with, and implementation of, international environmental agreements, and what metrics do we employ to assess treaty effectiveness? How effective are some of the primary international environmental agreements in force today? How can we make these agreements more robust? What is the interface between international environmental law and other important international institutions, e.g. trade, human rights and financial regimes? This course is open only to LLM students.
Credit: 3 Units  

LLM 381 - International Trade & Environmental Protection

This course examines the legal relationship between international trade rules and policies to protect the natural environment. The course content is related to material covered in courses on international trade regulation and international environmental law. Prerequisite: International Law or one introductory environmental law course recommended but not required.
Credit: 3 Units  

LAW 856A - Land Use Regulation

This review of the devices available to a community for regulating the development of land includes zoning, subdivision regulation, historic preservation, growth management, open space, and urban renewal. Also considered are the rights of owners, neighbors, environmentalists, and reformers to resist regulation on grounds such as just compensation, free speech, and housing welfare interests. Prerequisites: Property I and II.
Credit: 3 Units   Offered: Spring 2010  

LAW 872 - Public Natural Resources and Land Law

This course examines the laws governing natural resources on the one-third of the United States that comprises our public lands including forests, minerals, ranges, wildlife, recreation parks, and wilderness. Students also explore laws protecting federal wildlife and endangered species.
Credit: 3 Units  

LLM 386 - Thesis

A thesis is an independent study project for LLM students done under the supervision of the LLM Program Director. Thesis can be taken for 4-6 units. The thesis can be on any topic agreed to by the student and the Program Director. Thesis can be taken for a letter grade or for a Credit/No Credit grade and must be decided at the time of topic approval. All papers submitted under this program should reflect approximately 70 hours of work per unit of credit.
Credit: 4 - 6 Units   Offered: Spring 2010 , Summer 2010 , Fall 2010  

LAW 894A - Toxics Law and Policy

How to regulate the thousands of toxic substances used in commerce today is a central focus of environmental law. This course first examines how effective common law actions are in dealing with exposures to toxic substances, then studies the range of regulatory responses dealing with toxic substances and hazardous waste, such as the federal hazardous waste management law (RCRA), the federal Superfund statute that deals with clean up of abandoned waste sites, and other federal statutes controlling toxics in various other settings, including drinking water (the SDWA Act) and pesticides (FIFRA). The course also covers risk assessment and risk management issues and information-based alternatives to traditional regulation, including California's Proposition 65.
Credit: 3 Units   Offered: Spring 2010  

LAW 871W - Water Law

This class provides an overview of the legal framework and principles governing the ownership, use, and distribution of water. It covers topics that are national in scope, but it also emphasizes laws and issues unique to California. The class covers: surface water and ground water rights, riparian and appropriative water rights, California and federal water agencies, the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) and the California's State Water Project; interstate water compacts and international water allocation treaties, Native American water rights, instream flow requirements, the public trust doctrine, and California's water supply-land use legislation (SB 221 and SB 610).
Credit: 3 Units   Offered: Spring 2010