Open Yale Courses
EVST 255: Environmental Politics and Law
Mirrored from oyc.yale.edu · CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 · John Wargo Tweedy/Ordway Professor of Environmental Health and Politics
Mirrored from: oyc.yale.edu · Yale University · Environmental Studies
Instructor: John Wargo Tweedy/Ordway Professor of Environmental Health and Politics · License: CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0
About this course
Can law change human behavior to be less environmentally damaging? Law will be examined through case histories including: environmental effects of national security, pesticides, air pollution, consumer products, plastics, parks and protected area management, land use, urban growth and sprawl, public/private transit, drinking water standards, food safety, and hazardous site restoration. In each case we will review the structure of law and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses.
Course details
Course Structure
This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2010.
Texts
Kessler, David. A Question of Intent . New York: Public Affairs, 2002.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma . New York: Penguin, 2007.
Wargo, John. Green Intelligence . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.
Weinberg, Philip, and Kevin Reilly. Understanding Environmental Law . 2nd ed. Lexis Nexis Press, 2008.
Requirements
Students will complete a take-home midterm and a take-home final examination, but may substitute a short research paper for the midterm. Students will also prepare several short assignments to prepare for section and interpret readings.
Grading
Final Examination: 40% Paper or Midterm: 50% Discussion Section: 10%
Syllabus
1 section · 24 lectures · links open at oyc.yale.edu.
Course sessions
- Introduction to the Course
- Principles and Strategies in Environmental Law
- Nuclear Experiments
- Nuclear Secrecy and Ecology
- Preparing for Nuclear War: NEPA
- Marine Food-Chains: Mercury
- Site Restoration Law
- Chemically Dependent Agriculture
- Risk and Law: Pesticide Paradigm
- Safe Drinking Water: Science and Law
- Safety Claims and Free Speech: Preemption and Defamation
- Air Quality Law: Margins of Safety
- Vehicle Emissions and Public Transit
- The Quiet Revolution in Plastics
- The Tobacco Paradigm
- Evolution of Tobacco Law
- Land Use and Conservation Law: The Adirondack History
- Property Rights and Public Lands Management
- Land Use Law and Property Rights
- Managing Coastal Resources in an Era of Climate Change
- Certification: Design and Green Architecture
- Past and Future of Nuclear Power
- Renewable Energy Policies
- Reflection and Lessons