Fall 2023
5364 Texas Coastal & Ocean Law - IRVINE- 24618
Professor(s):
Charles Irvine (ADJUNCT)
Credits: 3
Course Areas: Energy, Natural Resources and Environmental Law
Time: 7:30p-9:00p TTH Location: 312
Course Outline: This course explores laws and policies that affect decisions on United States ocean and coastal resources, with particular emphasis on Texas. The coastal zone is at the same time a very sensitive area, a very useful area, and an economically important area. We will examine statutes, regulations, attitudes, and cases that shape how the federal government and the State use, manage, and protect the coasts and oceans. We cover government and private approaches to coastal and ocean resources, including beaches, wetlands, estuaries, reefs, fisheries, endangered species, and special areas. Specific statutes of importance are the federal Coastal Zone Management Act, and the Texas Coastal Coordination Act, Coastal Management Plan, and Open Beaches Act. Many other environmental laws and issues come into play in the coastal zone, including NEPA, CWA, ESA, APA, flooding, the role of permitting, energy production, water rights, sea level rise, zoning, and these all operate on local, state and federal levels, both private and governmental. The course will emphasize the practical application of these laws and policies and we will be discussing actual cases and examples from around Texas.
Course Syllabus:
Course Notes: (Face-to-Face) The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. After student registration in November, there may be instruction mode changes to this course up through Jan. 5th, 2022, but notice of such changes will be sent to then-registered students. Instructors and students are expected to normally be physically present in the classroom. If the course has a final examination, it will be in a classroom requiring your physical presence. Other assessment, such as a mid-term exam, may also be in a classroom. Whether this instructor will offer “remote presence” (starting a zoom meeting from the podium computer to enable student remote access on an occasional basis) for part or all of the semester is not known, but students should not rely on an expectation that remote presence will be available.
Prerequisites:
First Day Assignments:
Final Exam Schedule: 12/9 9am-12pm
This course will have:
Exam:
Paper:
Satisfies Senior Upper Level Writing Requirement: No
Experiential Course Type: No
Bar Course: No
DistanceEd ABA: No
Pass-Fail Student Election: Available
