Cases and Places: A Field-Based Approach to Teaching Natural Resource and Environmental Law

Abstract

Field-based environmental law courses offer a better approach to introducing students to the field of environmental law. Although only about five percent of ABA approved law schools offer field-based environmental law courses. At their best, these courses address many of the shortcomings of a traditional approach to environmental law by improving student learning, providing students with context for the real-world impacts of environmental law, providing an interdisciplinary approach to legal education, improving student well-being, and meeting effective student learning outcomes (i.e. helping them to care about environmental law). This article highlights one such course and provides a brief overview of the benefits of these courses more generally in order to encourage broader adoption of a pedagogical approach built around field experiences as a tool for teaching environmental and natural resources law.

Keywords: Environmental Law, Legal Education, Field Courses, Field Studies, Natural Resources, Environmental Law