ES 90 - Environmental Research Methods - Environmental Laws & Regulations

ES-90 - ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH METHODS
RESOURCES BY SUBJECT: ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS & REGULATIONS
Syllabus	Schedule	Assignments	Return to Index

INDEX

INTRODUCTION
SOURCES OF LAW
TYPES OF LEGAL RESOURCES
RESOURCES - ONLINE
RESOURCES - LAW BOOKS
RESOURCES - LICENSED DATABASES

INTRODUCTION

Understanding the Jargon

In researching government/legislative/court impacts on the environment, both positive and negative, you need to understand some of the relevant government and legal language. For example, the words constitution, statutes, laws, codes, regulations, case law, and judicial opinion are central to researching environmental legal issues, but do you understand the differences between the words?
A good place to start is through the use of a good legal dictionary. The best, most reliable and reputable law dictionaries are only in print or, if they have an online version, are only available through services subscribed to by libraries. The preeminent print law dictionary is Black's Law Dictionary, which is available in most public and academic libraries of moderate to large institutions. The De Anza College Library has a copy at the reference desk (Call No.: KF156 .B53 1999).

Online Legal Dictionaries

FindLaw Legal Dictionary - Particularly good. Searchable - http://dictionary.lp.findlaw.com/

Legal Lexicon's Lyceum - Online legal dictionary from the 'Lectric Law Library - http://www.lectlaw.com//def.htm

Everybody's Legal Dictionary - From NOLO - http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter/dictionary/wordindex.cfm

Searching the Law is a Specialized Field

Searching for legal information, particularly in databases of court cases and legal reference books, is a very specialized field in online research. There are things that you need to know about where the law comes from, what is the format of the law, and how the law is identified in terms of names, references, and alpha-numerical codes.
This does not make it impossible for the average person, just a little more difficult because you need to learn some basics. There are some excellent tools on the Internet for learning how to do it effectively, including the following:

Learning about Legal Research

Online Legal Reserch Tutorial - From the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library at the U.North Carolina at Chapel Hill - http://library.law.unc.edu/tutorial/intro.htm

A Quick Course in Using a Digest - From the UC Hasings Law Library - http://www.uchastings.edu/library/Legal%20Research/Research%20Guides/Digest/digest_research_main.htm

How to Shepardize® a Case Using Books - From the UC Hasings Law Library - http://www.uchastings.edu/library/Legal%20Research/Research%20Guides/Shepardizing/citator_research_main.htm

Legal Research Tools on the Web - Links to major legal research tools & a tutorial. - http://library.law.uiuc.edu/sub/legalr/Websources_main.htm

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SOURCES OF LAW AFFECTING THE ENVIRONMENT

We need to have a basic understanding of the structure and levels of government and the legal system, as they all impact environmental laws, codes, and regulations.

Levels of Government

We need to understand that there is a hierarchy of laws and regulations in the United States. :

Federal - The motherlode of law in the US, laws and regulations established at the federal level supersede those of any state or local government, particularly when they deal with levels of authority allocated to the federal government by the Constitution.
State - States can, essentially, establish any laws and regulations provided they don't encroach on federal laws and regulations and those powers allocated to the federal government by the Constitution. Often the federal government does not address a particular issue even though it may have the authority to do so. In such cases, states often step in and provide their own laws and regulations. One contentious example of this is the fact that California has much stiffer automobile gas mileage and emission limits than the federal government.
Local - Local communities, typically city and county and regional governments, are at the low end of the "power" totem pole, but many communities have been proactive in environmental issues.

Branches of Government

Federal, state, or local, at almost all levels, governments consist of three major components:

Executive - President, governor, major are the usual identifiers for the executive parts of governments, but these individuals also have entire agencies that usually operate as a part of the "executive" department. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is an example. Sometimes such agencies take on the responsibility of issuing regulations without legislative support.
Legislative - Congress, state senate and assembly, city councils, county boards, are your elected representatives and the primary source of the laws (legislation) that impact every aspect of our lives.
Judicial - Courts and judges are not supposed to make law, just review legal issues (criminal, civil, etc.) and make judgements on those issues. But the courts sometimes have to review ("judicial review") the legality of legislation, laws, and regulations, and, in the course of doing so, inadvertently make law by deciding whether those documents violate state or federal constitutions. For example, the United States Supreme Court has struck down laws created by federal, state, and local legislative bodies when those laws violated the Constitution of the United States.

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INTRODUCTION - TYPES OF LEGAL RESOURCES

There are two general types of resources on the law:

Primary Sources - Thse are the the original constitutions, legislation, laws, codes, regulations, statutes, and court opinions. These are invariable until changed or overthrown in a legal manner (new legislation, court decisions, etc.). Much of this material is now readily available on the Web.
Secondary Sources - There are numerous books and online sites that provide digests of laws, citations (how one law or legal ruling is based on or "cites" previous legal documents), and interpretations of laws. These facilitate understanding of laws as they apply to new situations. Other secondary materials include legal encyclopedias, dictionaries, and periodicals. You will have to access these materials in the De Anza College Library (or another legal collection, such as the Santa Clara Law Library or the law library

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RESOURCES - ONLINE

SUBJECT / WEB SITE	LAWS / REGULATIONS
GENERAL LINKS TO ENVIRONMENTAL LAW RESOURCES
Environmental Law Web Sites	"A collection of the most useful web sites on 16 topics in international and foreign environmental law." From the E. B. Williams Law Library of Georgetown University. http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/intl/envirolinks/
Environmental Law	Outstanding guide from FindLaw.com http://www.findlaw.com/01topics/13environmental/index.html
GlobeLaw: Environmental Law Resource	Covers international and transnational laws, treaties, and case law. http://www.globelaw.com/
Environmental Law	This section of the WWW Virtual Law Library is hosted by the U. Indiana School of Law Library http://www.law.indiana.edu/v-lib/vlib.asp
Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators	From the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center at Columbia University. http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/entri/index.jsp
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT - STANDARDS
International Standards Organization (ISO) 14000	Environmental Management - The ISO 14000 Family of International Standards http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/iso9000-14000/iso14000/iso14000index.html
FEDERAL
Digest of Federal Resource Laws of Interest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:	From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Congressional and Legislative Affairs http://laws.fws.gov/lawsdigest/indx.html
Code of Federal Regulations	From the National Archives and Records Administration http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/cfr-table-search.html
Regulations.gov	A very useful tool for searching for regulations, specifically or by subject. http://www.regulations.gov/
Federal Register	From the Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), The "Register is the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules, and notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents." http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html
Thomas: US Congress on the Internet	Current and past bills in Congress. Links to committees. From the Library of Congress http://thomas.loc.gov/
Treaties in Force - Index 2003	From the US State Department A List of Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States in Force as of January 1, 2003. Links to a searchable Acrobat (.pdf) document. http://www.state.gov/s/l/24224.htm
CALIFORNIA	The Legislative Counsel of California provides an online "Guide for Accessing California Legislative Information on the Internet," at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/guide.html.
State of California	http://www.ca.gov/state/portal/myca_homepage.jsp
California Legislative Web Sites	All the major California government web sites that are involved in the creation of legislation. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/legsite.html
Constitutions, Laws and Regulations	Links to the major state laws, codes, and regulations sites. Long URL
California Code of Regulations	From the West Group (legal publishers) http://ccr.oal.ca.gov/
California Code of Regulations	From the Legislative Counsel of California http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html
California Environment and Natural Resources Laws and Regulations	Too long an URL, so just click on this.
California Environmental Law, Regulation, and Policy	Relevant Statutes Administered by Resources Agency From the California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES) http://ceres.ca.gov/env_law/state.html
California Environmental Resources Evaluation System	CERES has links to a lot of links to state, federal, and local regulatory information. Click on "By Organization" under "Environmental Information" on the left column. http://ceres.ca.gov/
California State Constitution	Provides table of contents as well as a search engine. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/const.html
California Statutes	From the Legislative Counsel of California http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/statute.html
CALIFORNIA - SPECIFIC LAWS, REGULATIONS
California Endangered Species Act	From the California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES) http://ceres.ca.gov/wetlands/permitting/cesa.html
California Water Code	http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=wat

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LAW BOOKS

The De Anza College Library has numerous law books in its Reference collection because there is a paralegal program on the campus. Most of the books will be in the "K" to "KFC" section of the Reference shelves. (Note: Library of Congress "Call Numbers" that begin with "K" are legal books.)

Example References - Digests, Citations, collections of court information.

Digest of United States Supreme Court reports - KF101.1 .D5
Shepard's United States citations: cases - KF101.2 .S54
United States Supreme Court reports - KF101 .A313
West's annotated California codes - KFC30.5 .W4
West's California digest 2d - KFC57 .W47
West's California jurisprudence 3d : based on California statutes and regulations, and case law, state and federal. - KFC80 .C29
West's California reporter - KFC47 .C33

Example References - How to do legal research

Legal research using Westlaw - KF242 .A1 L663 2001
West's annotated California codes research guide - KFC30.5 .W47
The Internet guide for California lawyers - KFC74.5 .I57

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LICENSED LEGAL DATABASES

There are several vendors of legal databases that contain huge collections of laws, regulations, and case law (legal decisions). These databases, though, typically cost a lot of money to subscribe to. It is worthwhile knowing about them, as they are useful when you get into serious legal/political environmental issues.

A lot of the material in these databases is in the print law publications in the Reference section of the library.

Example Legal Databases

Lexis-Nexis - http://www.lexisnexis.com
WestLaw - http://www.westlaw.com

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