Summer I 2025
Professor(s):
Qaraman Hasan (VISITING SCHOLAR)
Credits: 3
Course Areas: Energy, Natural Resources and Environmental Law
Time: 4:00p-6:00p MW Location: 100
Course Outline: Between the election of Donald Trump, a more skeptical viewpoint by U.S. federal agencies and newly elected governments in other nations, and the enormous challenges created by physical reality of unabated global climate change, climate change law and litigation is poised for an explosion of activity over the next several years. Climate change law is already one of the most important fields of environmental law that affects virtually every major industry, civil and criminal enforcement action, large corporate deals, and international relations. Climate change lawsuits may also play a vital role in forcing action by reluctant governments and corporations as well as assigning liability for climate change damages created by past and current emissions of greenhouse gases.
This course will focus on the use of international and domestic law to address climate change and to identify the obligations or liability of parties who allegedly contribute to it. We will review the current state of the science underlying climate change findings and predictions, examine how environmental and tort laws have responded to earlier novel environmental threats and risks, explore the fate of the Paris Accords and the future of other international agreements, weigh attempts to roll back federal regulations or to buttress state laws that address emissions of greenhouse gases and climate change effects, and assess how courts have responded to climate liability lawsuits and their specific legal challenges and evidentiary issues. We will focus on practical, real-world problems and solutions in this fast-growing field of law and how it will affect daily permitting decisions, lawsuits and corporate transactions.
This class will use a dynamic combination of lectures, discussions, in-class exercises, sample problems and case studies. We will also bring several guest speakers to address aspects of climate change law and liability management that they encounter in their daily jobs and careers. Of course, all students should come to class prepared and able to join in discussions.
Course Syllabus: Syllabus
Course Notes: (Face-to-Face) The UH registration system instruction mode for this course is listed in parenthesis. For this instruction mode, 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:
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: Unavailable (Instructor Preference)
Course Materials
Book(s) Required
Course Materials: Michael B Gerrard, Jody Freeman, Michael, Global Climate Change and U.S. Law (3rd e., ABA Book Publishing. 2023).
NOTE: This book is required for the class, but purchase is not required. Professor will have a copy on reserve in the Law Library for students.
