Course meets: TR 2:30-3:45 Woodburn 105
Office Hours: MWF 9:30-10:30; TR 1-2:30
Office: 306C Woodburn
Phone: 293-3811 x5285
E-mail: jjacobs3@wvu.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to give students an overview of environmental
politics and policy from national, regional, and global perspectives.
We will explore topics including but not limited to: the philosophical
underpinnings of perceptions about the environment, the effect of risk
assessment on our ability to construct environmental policy, social justice
and the environment, global environmental problems and institutional attempts
at management, sustainable development, economic approaches to regulation,
and environmental politics and movements. By the end of the course,
each student should have a solid understanding of major national and global
environmental issues, their sources as described in contemporary research,
the actors – both social and governmental – involved in environmental politics,
and the policy-making process as well as outcomes of environmental legislation.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
During the semester each student is expected to read the texts when assigned and to be prepared for class discussion of the material. Periodically there will be brief written assignments that will be given in class or as take-home work. These will count as part of the participation grade, and no make-ups will be offered. The majority of the course grade will be composed of a midterm, and a final. Each student will also complete a paper (details to be distributed in late January) that analyzes an environmental problem and policy responses to it.
Midterm 30%
Final 30%
Participation 10%
Paper 30%
All work must be completed on the assigned date. Make-up exams will be given only in emergency circumstances and only with written notification prior to the exam. In the case of late papers, students will be penalized one letter grade per day past the due date.
Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in this course. West Virginia University expects that every member of its academic community shares the historic and traditional commitment to honesty, integrity and the search for truth. For further clarification please see pages 49-53 of the 1999-2001 Undergraduate Catalog.
WVU is committed to social justice. I agree with that commitment
and expect this course to have a learning environment based upon open communication,
mutual respect, and non-discrimination. Our University does not discriminate
on the basis of race, gender, age, disability, veteran status, religion,
sexual orientation, color or national origin. If you are a person
with a disability and anticipate needing any type of accommodation in order
to participate in this class, please advise me and make appropriate arrangements
with Disability Services (293-6700).
READINGS
Required Texts
Norman J. Vig and Michael E. Kraft, editors, Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century (4th ed.).
Norman J. Vig and Regina S. Axelrod, editors, The Global Environment: Institutions Law and Policy.
Robert V. Percival and Dorothy C. Alevizatos, editors, Law and the Environment: A Multidisciplinary Reader.
Additional readings
Additional readings, especially news items off the web, may be assigned/distributed
throughout the semester. All students are strongly encouraged to
read daily from national and international news sources and keep up to
date with current events in environmental politics. We will spend
a portion of each class talking about news items related to the course,
and each student is encouraged to note such items for discussion in class.
ORGANIZATION
Section One: Philosophical Perspectives (January 11-18)
Law and the Environment Percival and Alevizatos
Part I: Perspectives on Environmental Problems
1 Ecological Perspectives (3-32)
2 Economic Perspectives (33-64)
3 Ethical Perspectives (65-100)
4 Environmental Justice (101-133)
Section Two: Policy and Regulation in the United States (January 20-March 9)
Environmental Policy Vig and Kraft
I Environmental Policy and Politics in Transition
1 Environmental Policy from the 1970s to 2000: An Overview -
Kraft and Vig
2 Power to the States: The Promises and Pitfalls of Decentralization
- Rabe
3 Environmental Groups and the New Political Landscape - Bosso
4 Environmental Values and Public Policy - Paehlke
II Federal Institutions and Policy Change
5 Presidential Leadership and the Environment: From Reagan to
Clinton - Vig
6 Environmental Policy in Congress: From Consensus to Gridlock
- Kraft
7 Environmental Policy in the Courts - McSpadden
8 Escaping the “Battered Agency Syndrome”: EPA’s Gamble with
Regulatory
Reinvention
III Public Policy Dilemmas
9 Economics, Incentives and Environmental Regulation - Freeman
III
10 Risk-based Decisionmaking - Andrews
11 Environmental Justice: Normative Concerns and Empirical Evidence
- Ringquist
12 Understanding the Transition to a Sustainable Economy - Press
and Mazmanian
IV Global and Domestic Issues and Controversies
14 Natural Resource Policies in the Twenty-First Century - Lowry
V Conclusion
17 Toward Sustainable Development - Vig and Kraft
Law and the Environment Percival and Alevizatos
Part II Environmental Law and Regulatory Policy
5 Environmental Regulation in Historical Perspective (137-168)
6 The Politics of Environmental Legislation (169-202)
7 Environmental Regulation: A Structural Overview (203-238)
8 Alternative Approaches to Regulation (239-280)
Part III The Regulatory Process in a Participatory Democracy
9 Who Speaks for the Environment? (286-312)
10 The Regulatory Process (313-334)
11 Risk Assessment and Regulatory Priorities (335-362)
III. Section Three: The Global Environment (March 14-April 28)
The Global Environment Vig and Axelrod
1 Introduction: Governing the International Environment - Vig
I International Institutions and Regimes
2 Global Institutions and the Environment: And Evolutionary Perspective
- Soroos
3 The Role of Environmental NGOs in International Regimes - McCormick
4 The EU as an Environmental Governance System - Axelrod and
Vig
II International Environmental Law
5 The Emerging Structure of International Environmental Law
- Weiss
6 Environmental Protection in the Twenty-first Century: Sustainable
Development and
International Law - Sands
7 Compliance with International Environmental Agreements - Faure
and Lefevere
III International Environmental Policies and Implementation
8 Agenda 21: Myth or Reality - Bryner
9 Economic Integration and the Environment - Esty
10 The UN Climate Change Agreements - Molitor
11 Lapsed Leadership: US International Environmental Policy Since
Rio - Paarlberg
IV Sustainable Development: National Cases and Controversies
12 The Dutch National Plan for Sustainable Society - Liefferink
13 Democracy and Nuclear Power in the Czech Republic - Axelrod
14 The Three Gorges Dam and the Issue of Sustainable Development
in China - Sullivan
15 Mining, Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development
in Indonesia - Miller
Law and the Environment Percival and Alevizatos
Part IV Global Environmental Concerns and the Future of Environmental
Law
12 International Environmental Policy (365-394)
13 The Future of Environmental Law and Policy (395-423)
IMPORTANT DATES
January 17 Martin Luther King's Birthday Recess
February 22 Midterm Exam
March 17 Last Day to Drop a Class
March 23 Paper Due
March 25 – April 2 Spring Break
April 21 Easter Recess
April 28 Last Day of Classes
May 4 Final Exam: 8:00-10:00 am