The Curriculum
First Year
In the first year, students cover land use, housing and environmental issues in their property course. Students also may elect to take a section of the Law School’s new Administrative and Regulatory State course that focuses on environmental regulation. The course was recently added to the first-year curriculum to give students a basic grounding in public law and regulation and to counterbalance the long-standing dominance of private law subjects in first-year courses. The section taught by Professor Stewart uses environmental regulation as a lens through which to explore the interplay between the legislative process, administrative implementation of regulatory statutes, judicial review of administrative action, and statutory interpretation in the development and implementation of regulatory programs. For students with an interest in land use, housing or environmental law, Stewart’s section provides an invaluable introduction to many of the important themes and issues in current U.S. administrative and environmental law.
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Upper Years
Students interested in land use, real estate, and housing law may choose from the following menu of courses:
Advanced Property Law: Theoretical and Comparative Aspects
The right to private property is a fundamental basic right, necessary to the safeguarding of personal freedom and autonomy, and to human flourishing. In the course, we will discuss several issues involving property rights – such as the good faith purchase doctrine, the numerus clausus principle, compensation for injuries to property, dead hand control, property exempted in bankruptcy proceedings and redistribution through rules of property law – from both theoretical and comparative perspectives. The theoretical analysis will include subjective and objective theories of welfare (contrasting utilitarianism and preference-satisfaction theories with objective-list theories), economic analysis of law, the personhood theory, game theory, behavioral law and economics, and theories of distributive justice. The course will introduce the students to the relevant theories in philosophy, economics and psychology.
Colloquium on the Law, Economics, and Politics of Urban Affairs
This colloquium, taught jointly by Professors Been, Ellen and Schwartz enables students to explore current debates about critical urban policy issues. Leading scholars from economics, law, urban planning, and political science present early drafts of new research, which students then critique and discuss. Faculty from other area law schools and urban planning and economics programs, government officials, and policy-makers from both New York City and Washington, D.C., also frequent the colloquium.
Environmental Law
Environmental Law offers an introduction to the legal regulation of environmental quality. The course considers the theoretical foundations of environmental regulation, including economic and non-economic perspectives on environmental degradation; the scientific predicate for environmental regulation; the objectives of environmental regulation; the valuation of environmental benefits; the distributional consequences of environmental policy; and the choice of regulatory tools, such as command-and-control regulation, taxes, marketable permit schemes, liability rules, and informational requirements. The course then analyzes the role of the various institutional actors in environmental regulation, the allocation of regulatory authority in a federal system, and public choice explanations for environmental regulation. After laying that foundation, the course analyzes the principal federal environmental statutes.
Fair Housing
This course considers the law and policy of fair housing, broadly construed. Much of our time will be devoted to antidiscrimination laws in housing, with a primary focus on the federal Fair Housing Act. The Act addresses discrimination in the sale or rental of dwellings on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin. Other protections against discrimination in housing, including those found in constitutional law and in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, will also receive attention. In addition, we will examine legal mechanisms and government programs designed to improve the access of lower-income people to housing opportunities. The course will combine a close study of case law with readings that explore the question of fair housing from a variety of theoretical and policy perspectives.
Housing and Urban Development: Law and Policy
This seminar explores a broad range of issues concerning U.S. housing policy. Students study the historical development of interventions in the housing market as well the economic justifications for these interventions, and compare and contrast various regulatory and spending programs to meet housing needs. The course also addresses nonprofit, community-based housing; discrimination in the housing market; housing finance; and homelessness.
International Environmental Law
International Environmental Law surveys the customary law and treaty-based principles, rules, and institutions whereby states cooperate on transboundary and global environmental challenges. After a general introduction, the course focuses on issues currently shaping international environmental law, including global warming, declining fish stocks, loss of biological diversity, the regulation of genetically modified organisms, and the potential clashes between environmental objectives and the rules and institutions of the World Trade Organization. The course combines lectures with interactive sessions in which students argue opposite sides of these controversial problems.
Land Use Regulation
Land Use Regulation examines how land use is shaped and controlled through government regulation. It begins by discussing the circumstances under which regulation might be needed to temper the private market ordering of land use patterns. It develops a typology of the kinds of regulatory and market-based tools that are available to control land use, and provides a framework for evaluating the appropriateness of alternative tools. It also explores the rights of an owner if a particular regulation of land is inefficient, unfairly burdensome, unfairly disruptive of the owner’s settled expectations, or an infringement on the owner’s civil liberties. The course then switches sides to examine the rights that those who oppose the landowner’s plans may have to stop, or require modifications to, the plans. Finally, the course focuses on particular problems that plague the land use regulatory system, such as the financing of development, exclusionary zoning, the fair distribution of undesirable land uses, and “smart growth.”
Local Government Law
This course examines the legal and political relationships that govern the provision of goods and services by state and local governments. We will explore the relationships between localities and states, between localities and their residents, and between localities and their neighbors. In each case, we will consider legal principles that address: 1) what services should a local government provide; 2) which residents should receive those services; 3) who should pay for the services provided; 4) who should decide the answers to the above questions? We will emphasize and critique the constitutional and statutory responses that various states and localities have given to these issues. Among the specific areas covered will be the sources of local government power, incorporation and annexation, home rule, racial and economic implications of urban policy, state pre-emption of local ordinances, conflicts between cities and suburbs, property taxation, user fees, and municipal finance.
Property Theory
This seminar, taught by Professor Wyman, examines contemporary debates about property using a range of legal, historical, and philosophical materials. The seminar begins by considering four theoretical approaches to property law: the classic utilitarian justification for private property; the Lockean case for property; contemporary rights-based theories of property; and communitarian perspectives. The seminar applies these approaches to live controversies in areas such as environmental and intellectual property law. Drawing on the four theoretical perspectives, the seminar then addresses a range of topics, including property and economic development, the tragedy of the commons, the limits of property rights and markets, social norms, takings, and reparations.
Public Interest Environmental Law Practice
This course, taught by Professor Stewart with the participation of Professors Been and Wyman, examines the practice of environmental public interest practice by environmental groups and governmental agencies in the United States and internationally. It examines issues related to the financing, strategy, accountability, and performance of such groups and agencies, and the role of the lawyer in environmental advocacy. Distinguished public interest law practitioners serve as guest speakers, and students are strongly encouraged to draw on their own experiences in environmental public interest law work.
Real Estate Deals
Using case studies of real estate deals (to acquire the land, to acquire capital to finance the development, to share risk with partners, to foster approval or dissaude opposition by neighbors, to gain approval by regulatory authorities, and to protect that approval), the course will explore common economic problems that underlie real estate transactions and analyze the advantages, disadvantages and risks of a variety of ways of responding to those challenges. Participants in deals will discuss their selection of strategies, what worked and didn't work, unexpected problems, and the success of the legal documents used to structure the deal. We won't cover the basics of real estate transactions, but class members will certainly pick some of that up by analyzing the deals. The course will be run like a seminar, and students will be expected to be aggressive questioners of the guests who talk about their deals.
Real Estate Transactions
This course examines fundamental issues in real estate transactions, including financing, contracting, and conveyancing, with a primary focus on commercial transactions. Topics covered include: the structure of mortgage markets and the regulation of loan transactions; the law governing mortgages and related financing structures (such as installment land contracts and ground leases), including foreclosure and borrower protections; construction finance; suretyship (guaranties and related contracts); recording and lien priorities; contracts for the purchase and sale of real estate; conveyancing issues; and title insurance.
Seminar on Advanced Environmental Law
Advanced Environmental Law concerns prominent issues in environmental and natural resources law and policy in the United States and abroad. Topics covered include the ongoing debate about the use of such analytical tools as cost-benefit analysis and the precautionary principle in establishing environmental objectives; the factors governing the choice between conventional command-and-control regulation and economic incentives for achieving environmental objectives; interjurisdictional disputes over the allocation of water; current controversies in the regulation of fisheries and marine mammals; environmental issues specific to densely populated urban areas; and trade-environment disputes, such as the conflict between the United States and Europe about the regulation of genetically modified organisms. This academic year, the seminar is being co-taught by Professor Stewart and Professor Michael Oppenheimer of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and former head of the Climate Change Program at Environmental Defense. The seminar will focus on international environmental governance and the role of science.
Seminar on Community Development Law
This seminar, taught by Adjunct Professor Tesdell, introduces students to major policy and legal issues related to housing, economic development, and development finance activities of community-based organizations. In simulation exercises, students grapple with policy concerns raised in class as they negotiate community control of resources, draft restrictions on the use of housing, design and create corporate structures, deal with regulatory constraints, and debate adoption of various corporate forms.
Seminar on Land Use, Housing, and Community Development in New York City
This seminar, co-taught by Adjunct Professors Gerecke and Salama, analyzes the roots and consequences of urban distress, and assesses federal, state, local, and community responses to urban distress. It reviews initiatives to build housing and commercial projects in low-income communities and analyzes the many aspects of these initiatives. Students work together in groups to provide research and policy analysis for local community-based organizations.
Taxation of Property Transactions
This course surveys several fundamental areas relating to the income taxation of property transactions. Topics include depreciation, the effect of debt on basis and amount realized calculations, limitations on loss allowances, like kind exchanges, the passive activity loss limitations, the at-risk rules, leasing, characterization and installment sales.
Trust and Estates
This course explores the doctrine, policy and theory of trusts & estates law. The course examines intestacy, will execution, amendment and revocation of wills and trusts, irrevocable trusts, revocable living trusts, powers of appointment, the rule against perpetuities, and the elective share.
Urban Planning: Theoretical and Comparative Aspects
Urban Planning is one of the most powerful and comprehensive tools of land use control. In the course, we will discuss several issues involving this regulatory intervention, from both theoretical and comparative perspectives. Among other things, we will examine the justifications for urban planning and deregulation, the efficiency and fairness of different expropriation and compensation regimes, cultural buildings’ preservation, the treatment of non-conforming uses, and betterment taxation. Israeli and European rules and institutions will be compared and contrasted with American ones. The theoretical analysis will include economic efficiency, game theory, the personhood theory, libertarianism, and theories of distributive justice. The course will introduce the students to the relevant theories.
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Clinics
To put what is learned in foundational courses, seminars, and colloquia to the test of practice, many students take one or more of the Law School’s clinical courses.
Community Economic Development Clinic
This clinic, taught by Professor López, includes a classroom component in which students study theories and legal and other mechanisms of accountability about the actual dynamics of political economies and development initiatives relevant to low-income, of color, and immigrant communities. Students engage in fieldwork projects to evaluate and influence government planning processes, empowerment zones, and redevelopment proposals in response to community needs; assist in the enforcement of laws governing access to capital; and provide advice and counsel to small and micro-businesses. The clinic works closely with the Center for the Practice and Study of Community Problem Solving, which López founded at NYU School of Law.
Environmental Law Clinic
The Environmental Law Clinic, co-taught by Adjunct Professors Chasis and Goldstein, involves students in public interest environmental litigation and policy initiatives in the New York City office of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the nation’s leading public interest environmental groups. Students recently have worked, under the close supervision of NRDC attorneys, on projects involving New York City’s drinking water, global fisheries, energy efficiency and conservation, new source review of proposed power plants, Everglades National Park and Florida Bay, mercury contamination, lead abatement, and environmental justice litigation. Students attend a weekly NRDC seminar to review and discuss a range of cases and projects being undertaken by the organization.
International Environmental Law Clinic
The International Environmental Law Clinic, taught by Professor Stewart, involves practical projects for real-world clients on cutting-edge international environmental issues such as climate change, environmental law reform in developing countries, biodiversity protection, resolution of international water conflicts, public access to environmental information, and controls on genetically modified organisms. The clinic places students with public and nonprofit clients, including U.N. organizations, developing countries, international and domestic environmental groups, and international development banks. Students research and prepare legal briefs, position papers, and law reform strategies for the negotiation and implementation of international and regional environmental agreements and domestic law efforts to ensure sustainable development.
NYU School of Law offers students numerous opportunities for practical experience in solving challenging environmental issues and building professional careers in environmental and land use law. In addition to the clinics, the Law School funds summer public interest internships for students interested in working for environmental and land use organizations and in government service. Obtaining these positions, as well as positions after graduation, is facilitated through the Law School’s placement services and faculty and alumni networks. Students also have a range of opportunities to work closely with faculty on environmental and land use law reform initiatives for governments and international organizations, as well as on academic research.
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Students’ Opportunities to Get Involved in Land Use, Housing, Real Estate and Environmental Law
NYU School of Law offers students numerous opportunities to gain practical experience working on pressing issues in land use, housing, real estate and environmental law. In addition to the clinics, the Law School funds academic year fellowships, summer public interest internships for students interested in working for land use, housing or community economic development organizations and in government service. Obtaining these positions, as well as positions after graduation, is facilitated through the Law School’s placement services and faculty and alumni networks. Students also have a range of opportunities to work closely with faculty on land use, housing and environmental and law reform initiatives for governments and international organizations, as well as on academic research.
Furman Center Fellowships
Through the generosity of two alumni, Herbert Gold (’40) and Ronald Moelis (’82), two student fellowships have been endowed in the Furman Center. Each year, students compete for the opportunity to receive the fellowships, which also include the opportunity to work on research projects with Center faculty.
Summer Internships
To provide students with public interest land use, housing, community economic development and environmental experience, and to encourage and support future careers in public interest law, the Law School provides grants for two summer internship programs:
Korein Foundation Summer Internships in Public Interest Environmental and Land Use Law
Generous funding from the Korein Foundation allows NYU School of Law to provide first-year and second-year students with grants to support summer internships with leading environmental and land use organizations, both in the United States and abroad. These placements create valuable training and networking opportunities that help students secure full-time positions in environmental and land use organizations following graduation. Ten students served as the Korein Fellows in 2002-03, working for such organizations as Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, the Mexican Center for Environmental Law, the Institute for Environmental Law and Economics in Paraguay, Earthjustice, and the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In the fall following their placements, the fellows participate in the course on Public Interest Environmental Law Practice, drawing on their summer experience in addressing the theoretical and programmatic issues of practice in this field.
Public Interest Committee Internships
In addition to the Korein internships, NYU School of Law provides Public Interest Committee (PIC) grants to support first-year and second-year students who wish to participate in environmental and land use and other public interest or public service summer internships. Among the more than 220 students receiving PIC grants for work in the United States in the summer of 2003 were many who worked for environmental and land use organizations, such as the Brooklyn Bridge Park Coalition; Earthjustice’s International Program; New York Environmental Law and Justice Project; Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper; and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Another 60 Law School students used PIC grants to undertake internships in other countries, including positions on environmental law projects for the International Law Commission and other international bodies.
Career Opportunities
The Law School and its faculty and alumni also provide information, counseling, and assistance in developing future professional careers in land use, real estate, housing, community economic development and environmental law.
Public Interest Law Center
The Public Interest Law Center’s counselors assist students who want to learn more about summer internships, postgraduate fellowships, and permanent career opportunities in public interest and public service. Counselors advise students on job search and interviewing strategies, assist students in networking with alumni and employers who have previously employed Law School students, and help students navigate databases and directories. The Center sponsors various educational programs throughout the year and hosts brown-bag lunches for students to share their internship experiences. The Center also administers a Peer Mentor Program, which matches first-year students with second- and third-year students who intend to work in the public service after graduation. NYU School of Law also sponsors the annual Public Interest Job Fair, which draws almost 200 public interest and public service employers to the Law School for two days of interviews with our students.
Office of Career Services
The Office of Career Services (OCS) also provides assistance for students seeking both summer and post-graduation placements. OCS coordinates faculty research assistant positions for current students, has an extensive library of private-sector career resources, provides assistance to students seeking judicial clerkships, and provides individualized career counseling.
Financial Assistance for Public Interest Practice
The Law School provides significant financial support to students contemplating public interest and government careers. In addition to the Korein Foundation and PIC grants supporting summer public interest and public service internships, the Law School’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program repays all or a portion of the educational loans of most students who choose public interest or public service careers.
Faculty Contacts and Land Use, Real Estate and Housing Alumni Network
Faculty have extensive contacts with government agencies, law firms, environmental and land use organizations, housing and community development organizations, and the real estate industry. Faculty use their contacts to assist students in finding summer internships and positions following graduation and also counsel students about career options and opportunities. In addition, the Law School has a network of distinguished alumni practicing in the areas of real estate, land use, environmental law, housing and community economic development that students can tap. Students seeking opportunities in those fields have access not only to the scores of alumni working directly in those areas, but also to a broad public interest network fostered by the Law School’s extensive public interest programs, such as the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program, the Hays Civil Liberties Program, and the Global Public Service Law Project. Students interested in private-sector employment may call on our alumni in firms that specialize in real estate, environmental or land use law and those in real estate, land use or environmental departments within larger firms, as well as those working as in-house counsel.
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Student-Led Activities
In addition to the broad opportunities that NYU School of Law provides for classroom learning, clinical work, summer internships, and collaboration between students and faculty, the student community provides a wide variety of activities for students to broaden their exposure to environmental and land use law.
Real Estate and Urban Policy Forum
With generous support from two alumni of the Law School, Andrew Segal '92 and Justin Segal '96, NYU Law students have formed the Andrew and Justin Segal Real Estate Forum, which periodically sponsors events bringing back the school's alumni and other guests to share their experiences in real estate. Recent guests include Leonard Boxer '63, Sheri Chromow '71, Henry Elghanayan '66, Jay Furman '71, Adam Glick, Jon Hanson, Raymond Harding '61, Jonathan Mechanic '77, Ronald Moelis (’82), Larry Nelson '55, Alan Pomerantz '68, Bruce Ratner, Charles Ratner '66, Jonathan Rose, Larry Silverstein, Martha Stark (’86), Robert Steinman (’97), Elise Wagner (’81), and William L. Zeckendorf. REUPF also sponsors career panels, student-faculty mixers, and social and recreational events for students interested in real estate, land use, community economic development or housing careers. To expose students to current debates, REUPF also sponsors panels on issues such as the Fifth Amendment “takings” cases pending before the Supreme Court.
Environmental Law Society
The Environmental Law Society (ELS) is the organization of the substantial community of law students interested in environmental and land use issues. It provides a forum for student-led environmental education, activism, and practice. A committed group of students organizes and participates in a range of activities, including a speaker series, seminars, career panels, legal projects, environmental advocacy, and social and recreational events.
In the past few years, ELS has hiked and camped in the Catskills, toured a waste management facility, reviewed the president’s nominees for the federal bench, and overseen a University-wide campaign to transform the University into a more environmentally efficient institution. ELS kicked off its 2003-04 programs by co-hosting an environmental justice panel discussion with BALSA (the African-American student group) and local professors and activists who are involved in the environmental justice movement. The group also holds a series of environmental brown-bag lunches as its monthly anchor event. It invites professors, leading environmental and land use law practitioners, and student note-writers to share their wisdom and engage in discussion with a regular “lunch bunch.” ELS also plans to bring back some of the most popular activities from years past: an overnight ELS-sponsored camping trip; a regional ELS happy hour (which has brought together students from Columbia, Cardozo, and Brooklyn law schools); daffodil planting in the Vanderbilt Hall garden; and career and student internship panels. The society has also initiated evening dinner discussions with faculty.
Environmental Law Journal
One of the nation’s leading environmental law journals, the Environmental Law Journal (ELJ), promotes and publishes high-quality scholarly debate about environmental and land use law and policy from a wide range of perspectives. Each year, ELJ hosts a colloquium (often co-sponsored by faculty) on an emerging topic of concern in environmental and land use law, and publishes the most important conference papers. Past colloquium topics have included Regulatory Expropriations in International Law; Ozone Non-Attainment in the Northeast: Moving Towards an Effective Cure; and the Impact of Title VI on Environmental Enforcement. Most recently, ELJ hosted a colloquium on Governing Transboundary Water Allocation in the 21st Century, exploring the challenge of governance of water quality and availability, which will be one of the leading concerns of environmental and land use law over the next century as clean freshwater resources have grown increasingly scarce.
ELJ’s staff is composed of about 50 second- and third-year law students, many of whom are dedicated to pursuing careers in environmental and land use law. The journal strongly encourages students to publish notes and features case comments and book reviews by students as well. Each year, the faculty advisers —— Professors Been, Stewart, and Wyman, and Dean Revesz —— encourage students on the journal to embark on a research paper that will be publishable as a student note by hosting a “note topic dessert party.” At the party, faculty and third-year students share suggestions about how to choose a good topic for a research project over apple crisp and other treats baked by the faculty.
Speakers and Other Law School Events
The speaker series organized the Real Estate and Urban Policy Forum and ELS are just two of many events that students and faculty at NYU School of Law organize each year. The Root-Tilden-Kern Monday Night Speaker Series has included advocates working in environmental justice. Students and faculty recently helped launch a new magazine on the future of cities called The Next American City, by sponsoring a forum titled “The Future of The City: Envisioning the Next New York.” The Institute for International Law and Justice, the Environmental Law Journal, and the Rainforest Foundation hosted a remarkable public meeting on the experiences of the Panará, an indigenous people of the Brazilian Amazon who successfully fought, through notable legal victories, the onslaughts of a development project that nearly destroyed them.
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