Taken in its expansive sense, "environmental and natural resources law" encompasses pollution control law, energy allocation and conservation law, species and habitat protection, common law property rights, and a host of other areas. Often, this massive body of legal material is divided into two courses, the Environmental Law course dealing primarily with pollution control and the Natural Resources course covering the remainder. This casebook combines the two areas.
As a survey course, the expansion of subject matter coverage allows the student a fuller understanding of the "playing field" and the generic issues that arise across this wide spectrum of material. The wider coverage, moreover, should suit both students who want a once-through general understanding of this area of the law as well as those seeking a foundation for more intense future study.
Environmental and Natural Resources Law is divided into three parts:
- First, the book presents "foundational" material, which includes information on common law remedies, federalism issues, and a bit of the history of the environmental movement that has led to the current network of legal controls.
- Next, the book covers natural resources law, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the public trust doctrine. Also included is optional coverage of federal lands and water rights.
- Finally, the book surveys pollution control and remediation, discussing the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the "Superfund" law (CERCLA) in successive chapters.
Environmental and Natural Resources Law concentrates on the mechanics of regulatory programs so that students may learn how to read and understand complex statutes, why regulatory initiatives have come into being, and how the various regulatory programs are structured.
