This course offers an overview of the historical, legal, and policy framework for food and agriculture in the United States. Agricultural and food laws and regulations play a vital role in determining both the health outcomes for our nation and the level of environmental impact on shared natural resources such as air, water, soil, and biodiversity. The course discusses federal environmental statutes in the context of food and agricultural production and provides an introduction to the U.S. Farm Bill, pesticides, farmed animal welfare, genetically modified foods, food access, food safety, and labeling schemes.
The course will allow students to learn about the real work of environmental law and policy through a combination of intensive training on the skills needed to work with clients and grappling with environmental law and policy matters with which clients need help. At the commencement of the semester, students’ classwork will focus on lawyering skills and the basics of administrative and environmental law through two Saturday intensives. During the course of the semester, a weekly, two-hour class meeting will build upon these skills and include practitioners from industry, private practice, government, and non-profits. In addition, this weekly meeting will serve as a touch-point for learning and sharing with other students how their representation of clients is progressing, what concerns and issues are arising, and what learnings they are taking away. Students will be expected to put 10-12 hours of effort into the clinic per week in keeping with the 4 credit requirement. They will keep timesheets and a journal of their experience.
Open only to students who have completed LAW 367. This continuation of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic in the fall semester allows students to focus on active Clinic matters that need support during the fall semester. Students will work on Clinic matters and meet to discuss their progress with the Clinic Director and each other.
This course will touch on each of these interconnected areas of law: Food, Agriculture, and the Environment; however, we will focus on the “Ag” in our course title. We at Wake Forest Law are lucky to have many adjacent courses in Food and the Environment, including Animal Law; Energy Law; Environmental Law (course and clinic!); Environmental Justice; FDA Law; Food Law; and Natural Resources. (I can also recommend Biotech Law and Policy, Immigration Law, International Trade Law, Land Use Regulation and Planning, Lobbying Theory and Practice, Real Estate Finance, Regulatory Law and Policy, and our tax courses for those interested in an Ag Law practice.) That said, you can’t separate agriculture from food or the environment, for they are intertwined, as we will see. During this course, we will, among other things: consider the role of the Farm Bill in food production, critique various federal farm support programs, study the distinct attributes of farm finance, analyze the pros and cons of industrialized agriculture, and consider the role land ownership and use plays in US agriculture.
This course will help you understand modern environmental law - its genesis, its strengths, and its weaknesses - and how you can use it, and perhaps shape it, in your career. After covering basic principles of constitutional and administrative law as they apply to environmental regulation, the course focuses on the major federal environmental statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. The course uses actual case examples to illustrate major concepts.
A survey of the significant laws and policies of the European Community, including the legal and institutional framework, the internal market, competition and environmental laws, and an overview of external relations and commercial policy.
This seminar will examine and assess the legal regimes nations have developed to address international and global environmental problems, including climate change, ozone depletion, marine pollution, and the extinction of species.
Introduction to federal, state, and local government systems that govern the relationship between the individual and the state. This class examines the constitutional structure of American government, the processes by which laws and regulations are made, the methods agencies use to enforce the law, and the role of the judicial system. Topics covered will include civil rights, criminal procedure, environmental law, zoning and land use regulation, health and safety regulation, health care regulation, and financial regulation.