Natural Resources Law Seminar

Professor Flatt:  Tuesday, 4:00 – 5:40 PM; and selected Thursdays, 4:00 – 5:15/30 (because we will have extra time on Tuesdays and because much of the time is spent in individual meetings, we will only be meeting on 4 Thursdays).

Office Hours:  Monday 10:30-11:30; Tuesday, 1:30-2:30, and by appointment

 

Required Text:  Eugene Volokh, Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, and Seminar papers (Foundation Press, 2nd ed.); selection of either: William Dietrich, Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River or Douglas Brinkley, The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. (Order on Amazon and have by Sept. 5): also case and law review assignments (this is to avoid the expense of another book)

 

Natural Resources Law surveys the ways that we manage, use and preserve natural resources.  In particular, due to the importance of federal law to this area, and all of the land controlled by the federal government, we will particularly examine federal natural resource law and policy.

 

Importantly, however, this is also a seminar class, wherein you will right a paper that is publishable.  Therefore, much of the class will focus on the rules and ways of writing a law review type article, and on your own choice of natural resources law topics.  Thus, the class is not an exhaustive examination of all law governing natural resources, but an introduction to it – an introduction that you will use to write your own paper on a natural resources topic.

 

Paper Requirements and Deadlines:

 

Meet with Professor to discuss outline (your outline should be complete by this time)– October 5,  2007.

 

First Draft Due: Nov. 5-9, 2007 [date will be determined by lot]  (Papers due by Friday at 5:00 PM – they should be sent electronically to me at vflatt@central.uh.edu) Papers will be distributed to other participants for discussion in class.

 

Presentations:  Nov. 8-20, 2007 [date determined by lot].

 

Grade:

 

Burke (presentation portion) – 25%

Presentation of your paper topic idea – basic explanation and shape of first draft– 10%

Written Comments on Other Topics – 15%

 

Flatt-75%

General participation – 10% (including outline)

Paper – 65%

 

Final Draft due:  December 3, 2007 (last day of classes; sent electronically to me at vflatt@central.uh.edu)

 

Student Presentations:  During the last half of the semesters, students will present their papers to the class. On the Friday before your class presentation, you must provide copies of your first draft to me and the other students. Before class on Tuesday, all non-presenting students must prepare a one-page set of comments on the papers for that day. The non-presenting students must provide me and the respective writers a copy of the comments.  If you are presenting, you do not have to comment on the papers that are presented on the same day.

Aug. 21 – Introduction to Scholarly Writing; Intro to Natural Resources - presentations

 

Assignment: Volokh 9-32 (the Basics); handout – this will be first handed out in class – you will not be responsible for reading handout before class.

 

Aug. 28 – Scholarly writing cont. . .

Assignment: Volokh 32-62; 209-17

Sept. 4 and Sept. 11 – Public lands and US control; scholarly writing cont.

Assignment:  Volokh – 73-100;  (print these articles and cases out so that you will have them in class) Paul Smyth, Conservation and Preservation of Federal Public Resources: A History, 17-FALL Nat. Resources & Env’t 77 (2002);  Robert Barrett, History on an Equal Footing: Ownership of the Western Federal Lands, 68 U. Colo. L. Rev. 761 (1997); Edwardsen v. Morton, 369 F. Supp. 1359 (D.D.C. 1973).

 

Sept. 18  and Sept. 20 (Thursday meeting*) – Timber, scholarly writing cont.

Assignment: - Sierra Club v. Esty, 38 F.3d 792;  Sierra Club v. Peterson, 185 F.3d 349, Volokh 101-26

Sept. 25 – Minerals

Assignment: -U.S. v. Locke, 105 S.Ct. 1785 (1985) (print and bring to class); read and bring to class the mining laws, 30 USCA 22 et seq., and read an additional case or law review article about these laws and be prepared to discuss the issue therein.

October 2 – Wildlife

Assignment: -  Rob Fischman,  The Significance of Nat’l Wildlife Refuges, 21 J. Land Use & Envt’l L. 1 (2005); Wyoming v. U.S., 279 F.3d 1214 (2002).

October 9 – Wildlife, part II (ESA)

Assignment: - Lane Co. Audubon Soc. v. Jamison, 958 F. 2d 290; Daniel Rohlf, Sec. 4 of the ESA: Top Ten Issues for the Next Thirty Years, 34 Envtl. L. 483.

October 16 – States and Private Management

Assignment: - Robert L. Fischman, Cooperative Federalism & Natural Resources Law, 14 N.Y.U. Envtl. L. J. 179 (2005).

October 23 – Multiple Use and continuing conflicts

Assignment: - Sandy Zellmer, A Tale of Two Imperiled Rivers: Reflections from a Post-Katrina World, 59 Fla. L. Rev. 599 (2007); George Coggins, Of Succotash Syndromes and Vacuous Platitudes: The Meaning of “Multiple Use, Sustained Yield” for Public Land Management, 53 U. Colo. L. Rev. 229 (1982).

October 30 and Nov. 6 – putting it together – discussion of Dietrich and Brinkley book (have outline of book with five questions ready to hand in at beginning of Tuesday class)

Nov. 8 (Thursday meeting*), Nov. 13,  Nov. 15 (Thursday meeting*), Nov. 20 presentations