LAW-2435 Environmental Litigation: Superfund
The Superfund program allows the government - usually the USEPA - to identify sites contaminated with hazardous substances, to select a cleanup for those sites, and to compel responsible parties to implement the cleanup or to pay for it. It also authorizes those responsible parties to sue each other to reallocate those costs among themselves. Rather than survey many environmental programs, this course will provide general lessons by diving into the federal Superfund program under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Students should come away with an understanding of who is liable and for what; what legal and tactical issues arise in settling a case and in litigating it against the government and among private parties; how the administrative process interacts with private litigation; and how all of these risks can be mitigated in the course of buying and selling real estate or a business.