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Law and Science Seminar Syllabus
Law 939
Tuesday/Thursday: 12:30 – 1:45 Room: 108
Associate Professor Barbara Cosens
Spring 2009 will be the first semester for the Law and Science Seminar focused on the use of science in Natural Resources and Environmental Law and Policy. Whether you end up practicing in the courtroom, an agency, or making public policy, you will find that natural resource and environmental law is heavily reliant on science. How science is used in these arenas is complex and has become highly controversial in recent decades. This seminar is intended both to help you understand how science is used in natural resource and environmental law and policy and to be aware of the areas of controversy. Due to the controversy of recent decades, this is an area ripe for change. The purpose of exploring the controversy and solutions is to help you, on the one hand, avoid some of the pitfalls, and on the other hand, be a positive influence in the inevitable changes to come.
To ground the seminar in real issues, we will focus on a specific place in which these issues are playing out: the Columbia River Basin. In litigation concerning endangered fish and dams, science is played out in the courtroom. In the multiple Biologic Opinions on the impact of the Federal Columbia River Power System on endangered species, science is played out in agencies and reviewed by the courts. Finally, in the efforts to manage the benefits of the Columbia River between two countries and the anticipation of re-negotiation of the Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada beginning in 2014, science and social science of climate change, fisheries, energy demand, infrastructure needs and population change will play a major role. Thus, the Columbia River Basin is the perfect natural laboratory for our course.
Group Assignments (25% of grade)
For purposes of group assignments, the seminar will be divided into three segments:
1. Science in the courtroom
2. Agency science
3. Science in public policy and international law
Seminar courses represent an opportunity to transition from law school to practice. It is an opportunity to develop skills, practices and networks that will aid you in continuing to learn once you leave law school. On the first day of class you will select one of the three segments above. The group selecting a particular segment will be responsible for assembling reading material and guiding the class through that material. I will help guide you to material to accomplish three objectives: (1) give the class a grounding in the basic law in the area; (2) identify some problem areas and examples of where they have come up; and (3) current scholarship on what should be done to address the problems. Your group may guide the class through the material through, presentation, discussion, working a problem, and whatever other creative approach you want to try. Each group will have two class periods in which to cover their material.
To assure that group effort is evenly divided, or, if not, that differences in contribution are accounted for in the grade, you will be asked to fill out a peer review form following your group’s segment of the course.
Individual Assignments: Papers and Presentations (75% of grade)
Each student in the seminar will choose a particular controversy in which the use of science in natural resource and environmental law or policy is an issue. I encourage you to focus within the Columbia River Basin, however, particularly for those who will practice elsewhere, location is negotiable. The controversy may involve a court case, an agency decision, or a state or federal policy decision, or some of each may be involved. You will do the following three papers on the topic (the three papers can be used to satisfy your upper division writing requirement):
Paper #1 (25% of grade): An analysis of the legal or policy issue. 8-10 pages, double spaced exclusive of footnotes. Use legal citation methods. Due: February 12 Re-write must be turned in with paper #3
Paper #2 (25% of grade): An analysis of the science required for the legal or policy issue you chose in #1. 8-10 pages, double spaced exclusive of footnotes. Due: March 12 Re-write must be turned in with paper #3.
Paper #3 (10% of grade): A discussion of either how the parties to the particular controversy you chose could better use, obtain, or evaluate the science required, or a discussion of why this particular controversy represents an example of appropriate use of science in law or policy. Approximately 5 pages, double spaced. Due: April 16 No Re-write
Presentation (15% of grade): We will have certain class periods set aside for informal discussion of your research for your papers. These will not be graded. Each student will do a presentation of their research in the final days of class. Presentations will be timed and graded. We will spend time prior to presentations discussing how to make a good presentation and you will be given the criteria for how the presentations will be graded.
Class Schedule:
January 13: Introduction to Course/Columbia River, Group Assignments
January 15: Group Workday, Paper Topics
January 20: Group Workday, Paper Topics
January 22: Introduction to the Scientific Method/ Speaker: Fritz Fiedler
January 27: Group Workday, Paper Topics
January 29: Science Panel: the range in methodology and uncertainty
lab science: microbiologist Dr. Ron Crawford
natural science: hydrologist Dr. Barbara Williams
social scientist: rural sociologist Dr. J.D. Wulfhorst
February 3: Science in the Courtroom: The Basics/Issues
Assignment from science in the courtroom group:
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1993)
Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C. Cir. 1923)
Rule 702 from: http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rules.htm
February 5: The Law/Science Interface
Reading: Draft article by Cosens: Resolving Conflict in Non-Ideal Complex Systems (sent by email)
Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 715 (2006)
Wetland Article (to be sent via email)
February 10: Science in the Courtroom: The Solutions
February 12: Paper #1 Due, Roundtable discussion of papers
February 17: Agency Science: The Basics/Issues
Reading: Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council 467 U.S. 837
American Rivers v. NMFS 1997 WL 33797790
Nat'l Wildlife Federation v. NMFS 2005 WL 1278878
February 19: Agency Science: Speaker: Dave Cummings
February 24: Agency Science: The Solutions
Reading: Doremus 32 Ecology Law Q 249
February 26: Introduction to International Law
March 3: Science in Public Policy and International Law: The Basics/ Issues
Recovery of Imperiled Species under the Endangered Species Act: The Need for a New Approach, 3 FRONTIERS INECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT 383-89 (2005) [with J. Michael Scott, John A. Wiens, David S. Wilcove, Michael Bean, and Timothy Male]
March 5: Science in Public Policy and International Law: The Solutions
March 10: Roundtable discussion of papers
March 12: Paper #2 Due, Roundtable discussion of papers
March 16-20: Spring Break
March 24: Speaker: Adam Sowards -- Commons Whitewater Room
“Narrating Nature: Telling Stories about the Columbia River”
A primary way humans make meaning in the world is by telling stories. When we narrate about nature, we imbue the natural world around us with human values. Indigenous oral traditions, journalism, fiction, and even government treaties all tell stories. Those diverse narratives speak to our knowledge and our ignorance, our hopes and our fears, our nature and our culture. Using the Columbia River as the focus, this presentation explores the diverse ways humans have told stories about the environment to demonstrate how nature historically has captured human imaginations.
Reading: Richard White, “The Organic Machine”
Assignment: Develop a chronology of development of the Columbia River
March 26: Columbia River
Discuss White's book and chronology of development
Introduction to the Columbia River Treaty
March 31: The Art of Presentation
April 2: Class Cancelled: work on presentations
April 7: Columbia River Hydropower
Readings from Columbia River Symposium website
April 9: Columbia River Fisheries
Readings from Columbia River Symposium website
April 14: Columbia River People
Readings from Columbia River Symposium website
April 16: Paper #3 and Re-writes Due
Work on presentations
April 21: Presentations
April 23: Presentations
April 28: Presentations
April 30: Presentations
End of Classes
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