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Public Health, says that approximately 20 percent of his environmental law students are from other
395 university departments. The nonlaw students in his environmental courses write a term paper instead of
taking an exam and are graded under the criteria established by their departments. Some law professors are
teaching environmental courses in other departments. Boston College has a team-taught environmental law
400 seminar offered in the political science department that, Zygmunt Plater says, has received an «electrifying
response».
5.Some law schools have established close connections with a particular university department, such as
405 Yale's School of Forestry, Michigan's School of Natural Resources, and Berkeley's School of Public
Policy. Although, in theory, it is possible for students at most schools to combine a law degree with a
degree in another discipline, in practice, it is not done very frequently except for joint law-business J.D.—
410 M.B.A. programs. Ten University of Michigan law students are currently pursuing joint degrees with the
university's School of Natural Resources, and several Indiana University law students are enrolled in a joint
degree program with Indiana's School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Tulane awards two or three
415 joint degrees combining environmental specialties with a degree from the School of Business or the School
of Public Health. William Funk notes that, although Lewis & Clark has a joint masters of public
administration-J.D. program, he does not think anyone actually has gone through it. Two law students at
420 the University of Hawaii are enrolled in a graduate-level interdisciplinary program to receive a certificate
in ocean policy.
6. Some law professors have developed their own interdisciplinary seminars. At the University of
425 Washington, William Rodgers teaches a seminar on law and biology and is now organizing the Second
Annual Law and Biology Conference, to be held this summer in cooperation with the Gruter Institute. The
University of Florida Law School and Biology Department offer a joint seminar on Florida ecosystems.
430 Maryland's Law School and Toxicology Program offer an interdisciplinary seminar on lead poisoning.
7. O1iver Houck believes that coteaching an upperclass seminar with a professor from another school
only works in certain circumstances. But he emphasizes the importance of «field exercises, industrial plant
435 visits, seining critters in the marshes, getting the feel of it». At the University of Colorado, Charles F.
Wilkinson's Natural Resources Seminar, which enrolls 12 law students and 3 non-law students with
relevant expertise, examines all of the environmental problems affecting a particular watershed each year.
440 A critical part of the seminar is a field trip to the watershed, where students meet with land managers, law-
yers, environmentalists, businesspeople, and others.
V First-Year Inroads
1.Another concern for environmental law professors is the failure of the first-year curriculum at most
445 law schools to prepare students for the complex statutory subject matter of environmental law. In most law
schools, the first-year curriculum consists almost entirely of required courses, including large doses of
contracts, property, civil procedure, and torts. A few schools are beginning to introduce first-year students
450 to environmental law by addressing it as part of a course on public law. Columbia University Law School
devotes one — third of its first-year course «Justice and the Regulatory State» to coverage of
environmental law. Baylor University also has established a first — year course in public law, and the
455 faculty is recommending that environmental law be made a substantial part of the course. Other professors
are seeking to encourage teachers of first — year property and torts to incorporate discussion of
environmental liabilities into their courses.
2.T.C. Williams Law School has developed a program that includes environmental law as part of the
460 required first-year, second-semester curriculum. Michael Wolf explains that this requirement was adopted
by the faculty as a result of concern that the traditional first-year curriculum placed too much emphasis on
common law, which now has been largely supplanted by statutes in areas such as environmental law. To
465 free up space in the curriculum for the one-semester, first-year course in environmental law, T.C. Williams
has changed property from a two-semester to a one-semester course. Although a few other schools are
moving to incorporate environmental law into first-year courses, few professors expect it to make great
470 inroads there. As one professor notes, the «high priests of first year are hard to fight».
3.Despite the entrenched traditions that control the curricula at many law schools, environmental law
has generated tremendous interest among law students and spurred significant changes in legal education
475 over the last 20 years. These changes include the development of specialized environmental law programs
and increased opportunities for law students to receive skills training and to gain field experience. Legal