(Photo © Grandma Gregg)
What: Introduction to Environmental Law and Policy Course
When: Starts Monday, January 13, 2014 (This is not a cutoff date.)
Where: Anywhere, anytime, on-line.
Length: Six weeks
Professor: Don Hornstein, J.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Cost: FREE — including all materials that you’ll need
Register: FREE — It’s a very simple procedure too.
Earn: A Statement of Accomplishment, but no college credit.
Prerequisites: None. Designed for the under-grad.
Format: Videos (15 to 20 minutes each) and short readings per topic.
Repeat: Rewatch the videos and reread the readings as often as you like.
Quizzes: Typically 8 questions, multiple choice. Take when you’re ready.
Retake: To improve your score on any test, you can retake it … twice!
Participation: There are opportunities to take part in a forum if you’d like.
Professor Hornstein teaches what is known as “positive law” (what the law actually is) as opposed to “normative law” (what the law ought to be). He is an outstanding teacher.
The course imparts insight into how lawyers and judges think and reason with regard to environmental law. It does not specifically address wild horse and burro issues. But the information is still relevant for our purposes. For instance, one of the first topics covered is “nuisance law.” On the surface, it might not seem applicable to our advocacy. But wait — don’t the wild horses and burros get blamed for being nuisances when they step outside the invisible boundaries of their herd management area? So, understanding “nuisance” as a legal concept — determining what is and what is not deemed a nuisance according to the courts — can make us better-able to defend our clients. Advocates who have reviewed and responded to BLM environmental assessments will already be familiar with many of the terms, concepts, and laws that are discussed.
Dr. Hornstein has many teaching assistants that help him. They are eager to answer questions. Also, you will find that students from all over the world, not just America, take the course. Last term, there were reportedly about 20,000! Yes, twenty thousand!
A special thanks to Marybeth Devlin for bringing this class to our attention.
