Although the market and other mechanisms of private ordering determine much about how people use and develop land, perennial externalities and collective-action problems require coordination and regulation to mitigate and resolve conflicts. The legal system–through legislation, administrative agencies, and litigation at the federal, state, and local level–shapes the built and natural environment and brings public values into the management of private property.  Zoning ordinances, for example, set use and density limits as well as processes for development approval, influencing the geography of economic and demographic diversity, while environmental laws seek to limit pollution, regulate ecosystems, and respond to climate change.

This course provides students with working knowledge of important land use and environmental laws as well as the institutions that create, implement, and review them, offering constructive and critical perspectives on these regulatory regimes. The course also considers what distinguishes law from other fields, as well as the roles that planners, designers, policymakers, real estate professionals, community members, and the broader public play in land use and environmental law.  Through class discussions, the course engages with primary sources, such as zoning ordinances and judicial opinions, as well as secondary material, and requires no legal background. The course involves an exercise in proposing reforms to a component of a local land use law and a final exam.