Environmental Studies 149/ Legal Studies 149:

Environmental Law and Policy

 

Instructor: Ruth Langridge

MW 5-6:45pm

Syllabus

Assignment 1

Assignment 2 (Abhold) 149-SWANCC for rev.pdf

Assignment 2 - Due 2/9/09

Review Guide - Exam #1 

Review Guide - Exam #2

 

Research Paper Assignment

--Citation, Writing and Oral Presentation Guidelines

 

 Off-Campus Access | Legal Databases | Law Review Articles | Additional Info | Improve Search Results | Other Websites

 

Off-Campus Access:

If you live off campus, you'll need to login to the OCA (proxy server) to be able to use any of the library licensed databases listed below

 

Legal Databases: 

Use these legal databases to find court cases by case name or legal citation, and to find statutes and regulations, and law review articles.  It's important to familiarize yourself with both of these databases as they are heavily used in the legal world.

• Westlaw Campus Research

Use the Shortcuts menubar to find court cases when you have the legal citation or party names.  Otherwise, click the "Basic Search" tab and enter terms that describe your research topic. Click on the box next to the type of source you need, and click the blue "Search" button.

• Lexis Nexis Academic

Click on the "Legal" tab, select the type of information you are looking for: Federal and State Cases, statutes, regulations, etc.  Click "Natural Language", type in words that describe your research topic OR fill in the forms below the search box and click the red "Search" button.

 

Law Review Articles: 

Use Law Review articles to find background information and in-depth analysis about specific legal issues.  Law Review articles will lead you to references or citations for court cases, statutes, regulations and related law review articles. 

 

Use these legal databases to locate Law Review Articles. Consider trying your terms in BOTH databases since each contain unique environmental law review sources. 

• Lexis Nexis Academic Contains 400+ full text legal journals and law reviews (53 specific to environmental law).

Click on the "Legal" tab, select "Natural Language", type in words that describe your research topic and click the red "Search" button. 

• Westlaw Campus Research 300+ law reviews, primarily full text.

Click the "Basic Search" tab and enter terms that describe your research topic. Click on the box next to "Journals and Law Reviews", select "All Journals and Law Reviews" and click the blue "Search" button.

 

Additional Information:

Find resources that relate to your topic by searching databases related to your subject area. 

Suggested Databases:

• Lexis Nexis Congressional Find Congressional hearings, testimony and reports, track bills, laws, federal regulations and federal register announcements
• Academic Source Complete A good starting point: contains citations and abstracts for articles in peer-reviewed journals, magazines, and news sources.
• EnviroNetBase: Contains handbooks related to the environment.  Look for link to "Environmental Law, Management and Compliance"

 

Improve Search Results:

Get an overview of your topic, and develop alternative keywords you can use in your searches. Examining legal encyclopedias, books, and evaluated web pages are a good way to refine your searches. See How to Evaluate Information on the Web for help with assessing web pages.

Legal Encyclopedias and Reference Sources:

• Westlaw Campus: Environmental Law.  Scroll down left menubar for "Legal Guides" and select "Environmental Law"
• Westlaw Campus: American Jurisprudence "Am Jur".  Click "Basic Search" tab, check box next to "Am Jur" under "Encyclopedias and Law Reviews".  Enter search terms that describe your topic
• Environmental Law in a Nutshell McH Ref Law KF3775.Z9 F56 2008 
• Environmental Law Handbook McH Ref Law KF3775.E473  — Legislative sourcebook includes full text of major environmental laws such as the Clean Air act, Endangered Species act, etc.
• Environmental Law and Policy: Nature, Law, and Society McH Ref Law KF3775.A7 P55 2004 — Provides overview and development of environmental laws and policies. Clarifies local, state, and federal relationships. Includes statuatory approaches, private and public rights and responsibilities, globalization, international and comparative law.

When using these sources, note the following:

• Write down new terms, alternative concepts and phrases, key dates, facts, etc. 
• Look for citations and references to other sources.  Research Tip: Locate the prior history of cases,associated briefs if available, and citations to other cases.  Westlaw Campus : Look up the case, view the full text, look on left menu for history, briefs, etc. Lexis Nexis Academic :  Look up the case, view the full text, look for link at top of page.   
• Use Cruzcat (UCSC library catalog) to find the titles of any reports or books referenced in the encyclopedias, law reviews, etc. and see if we own them at UCSC.

 

Other Websites:

Findlaw Environmental Law websites: http://www.findlaw.com/01topics/13environmental/overview.html

Provides a plethora of links to international, national, state and local environmental law sources, environmental organizations, and Law Schools with strong environmental law programs.

 

GPO Access:www.gpoaccess.gov/

Find government publications across multiple federal agencies, including congress and the judicial resources

 

Lucia Orlando luciao@ucsc.edu

January 2009