Risk and Environmental Law

This seminar will explore the disparate ways that environmental laws consider risk to human health and the environment. The laws to be studied will include the federal Superfund statute, Clean Air Act, and Toxic Substances Control Act. Each law seeks to protect human health and the environmental but puts into place distinct risk criteria for the agency to use in determining what degree of regulation is needed to achieve this end. The class will also study agency practices as to the monetization of risks to human health and the environment (that is, translating such risk to dollars) to allow these risks to be reflected in the cost-benefit analysis of proposed environmental regulations. The criticisms of those opposed to such monetization practices will also be studied. Finally, the class will examine the consideration of environmental liability risk in the context of real estate and corporate transactions. The materials to be assigned for the class will include the text of selected provisions of federal statutes and regulations, agency guidance documents and some caselaw. Three short papers discussing the assigned materials will be required.