Courses

The Goldman Sonnenfeldt Environmental Protection Clinic’s mission is to train students in environmental advocacy through interdisciplinary project work in collaboration with public interest organizations. Students are assigned to teams of two-to-four members drawn from the Law School and the School of the Environment to work on discrete projects in collaboration with partner organizations. The clinic’s docket covers a wide range of environmental issues, with most projects integrating legal and policy components. In addition to covering current topics in environmental policy and principles of environmental justice, clinic seminars help students master the tools of effective environmental advocacy, including the ability to research law and science, write persuasively, and manage projects cooperatively. For the 2024-2025 academic year, the EPC will also include teaching team members and projects from the Climate, Animals, Food, and Environmental Law and Policy (CAFE) Lab. Projects offered through CAFE Lab in the past have included litigation to address GHG emissions from industrial agriculture and legislative models to hold industrial food producers accountable for the currently uncounted, externalized costs of industrial agriculture for animals, workers, communities, and the environment.

The Advanced Climate, Animal, Food, and Environmental Law and Policy Lab, offered in the spring 2021, spring 2023, fall 2023, and spring 2024 semesters, allows students who have already completed the CAFE Lab course to continue working on projects that advance industrial animal agriculture reform. Enrollment limited. Permission of instructors required.

The Climate, Animal, Food, and Environmental Law and Policy Lab (CAFE Lab), offered in the fall 2020, fall 2022, spring 2023, fall 2023, and spring 2024 semesters, allows students the opportunity to work with faculty, outside experts, and non-governmental organizations to develop innovative litigation and legislative initiatives to bring systemic change to the global food industry, which is one of the top contributors to climate change, animal suffering, human exploitation, and environmental degradation worldwide. The Lab’s primary focus areas for 2023-24 include litigation to address GHG emissions from industrial agriculture and legislative models to hold industrial food producers accountable for the currently uncounted, externalized costs of industrial agriculture for animals, workers, communities, and the environment. As of Fall 2024, CAFE Lab and work with the Climate Change & Animal Agriculture Litigation Initiative will be part of the Goldman Sonnenfeldt Environmental Protection Clinic.

This course will examine the application of the law to non-human animals, the rules and regulations that govern their treatment, and the concepts of "animal welfare" and "animal rights." The course will explore the historical and philosophical treatment of animals, discuss how such treatment impacts the way judges, politicians, lawyers, legal scholars and lay people see, speak about, and use animals; survey current animal protection laws and regulations, including overlap with such policy issues as food and agriculture, climate change, and biodiversity protection; describe recent political and legal campaigns to reform animal protection laws; examine the concept of "standing" and the problems of litigating on behalf of animals; discuss the current classification of animals as "property" and the impacts of that classification, and debate the merits and limitations of alternative classifications, such as the recognition of "legal rights" for animals. Students will write a series of short response papers. An option to produce a longer research paper for Substantial or Supervised Analytic Writing credit will be available.

This course will examine the relationship between climate change, humans, and animals. With few exceptions, researchers and policy advocates looking at the impact of climate change on animals tend to focus on species loss and biodiversity at a macro level. But climate change is also having profound impacts on the individual lives and well-being of billions of animals. Large-scale human use of animals for food is also a significant and often overlooked cause of climate change emissions. The course seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the impacts of climate change on animals, the power dynamic between privileged human actors and the disenfranchised victims of climate change, and the intersection of animal welfare, environmentalism, food policy, and climate change. The course will be organized partly as a traditional seminar and partly as a collective research endeavor to gather and analyze information on this significant and neglected topic. As part of the course experience, students will work in small groups to conduct research and write a report on an underdeveloped topic concerning animals and climate change. The various sub-reports will be edited into a single white paper that will be distributed to the animal welfare, environmental, food policy, and climate change advocacy communities. Depending on the scope of their work, YLS students may be eligible to receive Substantial Paper or Supervised Analytical Writing credit. Paper required. Enrollment limited. Permission of the instructors required. Also F&ES.