UF Law DRAFT Climate Change – Spring 2016 Professor Stein
Climate Change Law
Professor Amy Stein
Spring 2016 – Law 6936 – 2 credits
U. of Florida Levin College of Law
Syllabus
Time/Location: Tuesdays, 9:00 a.m. - 10:50 a.m.
Room 350
Contact Information: Professor Amy L. Stein
Office 311, 352-273-0953
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m., or by appointment
Course Description:
This seminar will focus on contemporary issues associated with climate change law, including international ramifications, domestic actions, litigation strategies, and the legal tools available to address the multiplicity of topics related to climate change. Students will be expected to complete background reading independently and then take turns leading the class in critical analyses of climate change documents. There will be a collaborative element to this seminar, with a focus on helping each other with topic and paper development and review. Each student will have an opportunity to explore areas of specific interest with the completion of one substantial written legal analysis and presentation to the class. The paper completed for this course will satisfy the Writing Requirement.
Learning Objectives:
The goals of this course include the following:
· Learn to recognize and comprehend the terminology, scientific basis, and major issues related to climate change, and be able to communicate them to others;
· Explore various theoretical and analytical frameworks for evaluating the policy choices inherent in climate change, assess their efficacy, and understand their limitations;
· Introduce you to certain current “hot topics” that arise in climate change policy debates; and
· Develop your research, writing, and editing skills by undertaking a substantial research paper on a climate change policy-related topic of your choosing.
Required Reading Materials:
· The readings will be available electronically on Westlaw, Lexis, the Internet, or TWEN.
· Please obtain a copy of the assigned readings, read them, and bring them to class.
· Please register on the course TWEN site.
Attendance & Class Participation:
Participation and attendance are an important part of any seminar course, and your participation and attendance in class will constitute a significant portion of your final grade for this course, as described below. This seminar will culminate in your writing a 25-page double-spaced scholarly paper on a topic of your choosing relating to climate change law.
(1) Attendance Policy: You are expected to attend and participate in class. I am assuming that each student that enrolls in this course is committing to attend every class to the best of their abilities. Nevertheless, to allow for exigencies in life, students are permitted three absences during the semester without impacting their final grade. For each absence beyond three, a student’s final paper grade will be reduced by one-third of a grade (e.g., A- to B+). There is no distinction between excused or unexcused absences, but this allowance is designed to accommodate for illness, job interviews, and family emergencies. For this reason, there are no exceptions beyond the three absences, even for very valid illnesses or emergencies that may occur at the end of the semester. Please budget accordingly. Nevertheless, as a courtesy, please let me know when you are going to be absent from class.
(2) Research Paper. You will “workshop” your work-in-progress idea to the class on an assigned day and be responsible for providing written feedback on colleague’s paper and oral feedback on the rest. Your 25-page final research paper is due no later than 5 pm on Tuesday, April 19, 2016. Pages should be in 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins. Footnotes should be in 10-point font and single-spaced. Please send your papers to me via EMAIL. I reserve the right to reduce your grade if your research paper is turned in late. If your paper is longer than 30 pages, I will stop reading after page 30, unless you have specifically sought my permission to turn in something longer. Permission will only be granted if there is a very good reason why you need more than 30 pages to present your research and argument.
(3) PLAGIARISM AND HONOR CODE: Please note that I will take honor code violations and/or plagiarism very seriously – your research paper must constitute your own independent work. Plagiarism or unattributed use of another’s work may result in a grade reduction, and I may report any such violations to the Honor Board.
**Final Grade: Your final grade for the course will be determined as follows:
Attendance and Participation:- Attendance and class participation (including being present and prepared for class, and participating in classroom discussion): / 10%
- Serving as discussant for one of your classmates’ papers and providing written feedback on their draft: / 15%
Drafts and Paper Presentation:
- Discussing your proposed paper with me by February 10; preparing draft/outline of paper; timely circulating draft/outline and accompanying background documents to the class: / 15%
- Oral presentation of your paper to the class; respond to questions and feedback: / 10%
Final Research paper (due April 19): / 50%
**I reserve the right to impose penalties for work submitted late and blown deadlines.
This is a rapidly changing field with new information available daily. This syllabus is offered as a guide to the direction of the course, but I reserve the right to change or supplement the readings along the semester. It is your responsibility to check TWEN and any e-mails you may receive from me regarding this course. Do not let the number of readings scare you. Many of them are only a few pages. Place priority on the scholarly works, cases, and government documents. Remember that learning to skim and pull out the salient pieces of a document is a key skill for your eventual practice.
11/5 / Introduction & Course Overview: Science and Scientific Uncertainty
· W. Collins, et al., The Physical Science Behind Climate Change, Scientific American (2008), http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=science-behind-climate-change
· J. Achenbach, Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?, National Geographic, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/science-doubters/achenbach-text
· C. Mooney, Forget “bans” on talking about climate. These Florida Republicans are too busy protecting their coasts, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/03/31/the-unlikely-group-of-republicans-who-are-preparing-florida-for-climate-change/
· Citibank, Energy Darwinism II: Why a Low Carbon Future Doesn’t Have to Cost the Earth, pp. 1-27, https://ir.citi.com/E8%2B83ZXr1vd%2Fqyim0DizLrUxw2FvuAQ2jOlmkGzr4ffw4YJCK8s0q2W58AkV%2FypGoKD74zHfji8%3D
· Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2013, The Physical Science, click on Summary for Policymakers, http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/
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1/12 / International Framework
· TBA
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1/19 / Climate Change Federalism and Common Law Claims
· TBA
4
1/26 / Climate Change and Florida
· TBA
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2/2 / Putting a Price on Carbon - Cap and Trade v. Carbon Tax
· TBA
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2/9 / Executive Involvement – Regulation of GHGs Under the
Clean Air Act
· TBA
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2/16 / Citizen Involvement – Litigation Strategies
· TBA
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2/23 / Energy Policies
· TBA
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3/8 / Paper Presentations – Group 1:
· Presenter 1:
· Discussant:
· Presenter 2:
· Discussant:
Required Readings:
· All the Paper drafts being presented
· All the background documents provided by presenters
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3/15 / Paper Presentations – Group 2:
· Presenter 3:
· Discussant:
· Presenter 4:
· Discussant:
Required Readings:
· All the Paper drafts being presented
· All the background documents provided
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3/22 / Adaptation
· TBA
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3/29 / Human Rights and Sovereignty and Migration
· TBA
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4/5 / SEC and Disclosures
· TBA
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4/12 / The Future of Climate Change
Appendix A - Suggested places to find news or current events articles. (These are also good resources for researching your final paper.)
· Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis, http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
· Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, http://www.c2es.org/
· Columbia Climate Change Center: http://www.law.columbia.edu/centers/climatechange
· EPA, http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/
· EIA, http://www.eia.gov
· Energy and Environment Daily, available at the Tulane library website: http://www.law.tulane.edu/tlslibrary/Research.aspx. You can also sign up to receive a daily email with climate news and alerts.
· Florida Climate Institute, https://floridaclimateinstitute.org/
· Global Change, www.globalchange.gov
· National Climate Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program, available at http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/
· United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, http://unfccc.int/meetings/durban_nov_2011/meeting/6245.php
· World Resources Institute: http://www.wri.org/climate?gclid=CLvErqWhsK0CFUOQ7QodI2TFoA
· Mainstream news media, including nytimes.com, cnn.com, Wall Street Journal, and Google news.
· Resources on Writing an Article, http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/lawrev.html
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