Lecture Description
This lecture covers site restoration law by looking at the U.S. Navy's use of the island of Vieques as weapons testing ground. Vieques residents are filing a civil suit against the U.S. government, which raises issues of burden of proof, scientific certainty with respect to exposure amounts and health impacts, and how the government protects citizens from environmental hazards. Professor Wargo traces the evolution of site restoration law, from the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969 setting the stage for sustainable land use, to Superfund amendments in the late 1980s that mandated more stringent protection of citizens from toxics.
Reading assignment:
Wargo, Green Intelligence, chapters 5-8
Weinberg, Understanding Environmental Law, pp. 233-40, 282-304, and 327-32
Course Index
- 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
Course Description
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 Structure:
This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2010.