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Environmental Track
Explore the pillars of environmental regulatory and compliance law and beyond!
Classes will be held each week from 1:00pm-4:00pm at the Pace Law Campus in White Plains except where otherwise noted.
- Administrative Law for Environmental Lawyers (John Parker; 1 credit)
No longer open for registration
May 28th-31st
*12:30pm-4:00pm
This course provides a basic overview of the federal Administrative Procedure Act and explains the role of federalism in carrying out national environmental law and policy. The course will take students from the basics of "what is a regulation" through judicial review of rule-making. The course will cover key provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act, the role of the non-delegation doctrine, administrative rule-making, administrative adjudication and judicial review of agency action and inaction. The course will cover some of the major cases in administrative law, including Chevron v NRDC and Mass. v. EPA. The course will also address the importance of the access to information in rule-making processes by highlighting the role of the Freedom of Information Act. The course will also discuss the role of the National Environmental Policy Act in agency action and decision-making.
- Environmental Law Overview (Tracy Hester; 1 credit)
No longer open for registration
June 3rd-7th
This course provides a basic context for all US environmental laws, by providing an overview of their constitutional and common law origins and regulatory structure. The Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, solid and hazardous waste laws, and Endangered Species Act, will all be discussed.
- Clean Air Act & Climate Change (Joe Siegel; 1 credit)
No longer open for registration
June 10th-14th
By its 40th anniversary in 2010, the Clean Air Act had already saved hundreds of thousands of American lives and produced trillions of dollars in health benefits for the United States. The total economic benefits of the Clean Air Act amount to more than 40 times the cost of regulation, and yet the Act is one of the most maligned environmental statutes and occupies the center of attention in partisan debate on federal environmental law. Conflicts related to the statute often go to the heart of how we define our environmental values and frame the future of our Nation. This course will examine the Clean Air Act through the lens of the hottest topics of today. We will study the underpinnings of the statute by looking at recent developments in air pollution law and policy. One of the major themes throughout the course will be climate change and how the statute is becoming the primary federal vehicle for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
No longer open for registration
June 17th-21st
This course provides a more in-depth approach to the Clean Water Act and its mechanisms, and will cover the laws governing wetlands. Key provisions of the CWA covered include NPDEs permitting, water quality standards, definitions (e.g., water of the United States), and enforcement and citizen suit provisions. The course will also discuss evolving legal issues with the scope of the CWA under the Commerce Clause, Rapanos, etc., as well as wetlands issues relating to sea level rise, wetlands banking, and takings defenses.
- Wildlife Law (Dan Rohlf; 1 credit)
No longer open for registration
June 24th-28th
This course will take an in depth look at the Endangered Species Act, including key provision of and major litigation relating to the statute. The class will examine biodiversity loss and its causes and discuss whether or not the ESA’s “deathbed approach” to conservation has been a success. The course will also provide some grounding in the international law of wildlife protection.
- Environmental Risk Assessment & Insurance: Risk Mitigation Relating to Wind Farms and Other Nature-Based Issues (Kim Diamond; 1 credit)
No longer open for registration
July 8th-12th *at Pace University's Fred French Building in midtown Manhattan
Natural weather events can cause financial and other risks to unwary commercial wind project developers. Extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, floods, and other climate change-induced occurrences, can leave ordinary companies at risk and vulnerable to serious economic losses. In the future, these weather and climate patterns may play a significant role in shaping future policy, from offshore wind farm development to water rights allocation. Awareness of scientific data, applicable laws, and policies, coupled with risk avoidance and risk mitigation techniques – including the use of insurance –can enhance a person’s or business’s ability to make well-informed decisions, implement a prudent risk management strategy, decrease climate change-induced and other weather-related vulnerabilities, and increase resilience to weather-related risks. This course will examine such matters as risk avoidance and/or insurance issues, as well as legal and policy matters, with respect to the following: (1) strategies for addressing wind wakes; (2) the role of insurance in the future of U.S. offshore wind farm development; (3) how far the zone of impact may reach in pollution liability-related claims under a greenhouse gas/climate change causation theory; (4) flooding, storm damage, and other water-related impacts that can harm businesses in both expected and unanticipated ways, and (5) types of insurance policies a company may want to have in place to protect against certain of these occurrences.
- Brownfields Field Course (Seth Davis; 1 credit)
No longer open for registration
July 15th-19th
This 2-1/2 day field course will take students into the field where they will study brownfields development law in situ. Accompanying readings on brownfields redevelopment law will be augmented by meetings with city officials, banking officers, restoration scientists and construction company officers at the sites of brownfields redevelopments.