Sustainability Ecology Policy: Biodiversity Law

Special topics in natural resources beyond the scope of existing formal courses.

Special Topics courses cannot carry CC designations. PACE students by permission and override

This 3-credit course is about the laws and regulations that have been designed specifically to maintain and promote biodiversity, and those that, although they were not specifically intended to have this effect, effectively contribute to biodiversity protection. Biodiversity issues can be both very local and international at the same time, such as animal species that migrate between winter and summer feeding and breeding grounds. This means that local ordinances, state laws, national laws, and international compacts all can impact a single species. It is one thing to pass a law and promulgate a regulation to implement that law; it is quite another to make it have its intended effect. Therefore, this course will also explore the enforcement of biodiversity laws and regulations, and the role that policies play in implementation and enforcement. The course will feature guest speakers who work in legislative development, litigation, education, and implementation and enforcement efforts. The lessons on the European Union will be taught in partnership with the University of Salzburg international law faculty. I have 4 goals for students: 1. Read and understand U.S. biodiversity laws and regulations and international treaties. 2. Read and understand international biodiversity treaties and the biodiversity laws, regulations, and caselaw of the European Union, Australia, and South Africa. 3. Further develop analysis and writing skills by writing case brief memoranda on court decisions and the service-learning research project on biodiversity and environmental health at the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). 4. Be better able to analyze and to converse with any given audience about the costs and benefits of legislative and regulatory biodiversity protection efforts

The course will largely use a lecture style format with time for discussion in the classroom, for 3 hours on Thursday evenings from 6:00-9:00 p.m. There will be 4–5 guest speakers, and 10-minute breaks each hour. There will be no textbook; I simply have not been able to find a good one. Instead, I will post on Brightspace the texts of laws and regulations, and court decisions, articles and videos about those laws and regulations, and the implementation and enforcement efforts that result from them. On average per week, the reading and viewing assignments will take between 3– 4 hours to complete, with additional time for the semester-long service learning research project. Students will work in 2- or 3-member teams on these projects. Students will need to be available on Saturday 7 September and Saturday 16 November for day trips to Missisquoi NWR via bus from the Aiken Building.

2 Case Brief Memoranda – first brief 10% of course grade; second brief 15% Midterm Exam – 25% of course grade (10 % objective questions, 15% essay) Final Exam – 25% of course grade (10% objective questions, 15% essay) Service-Learning Research Project Report – 25% of course grade