Professor Luke Cole
Small Group Assignment #2
Teach Us All Environmental Law
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Are the small groups the same as before?
Yes, the three members of your small group are the same as for the first assignment.
2. Can we have a different small group?
No. One of the pedagogical purposes behind the assignment is to replicate, in a relatively low-stakes environment, the experiences many of you will have in the legal field, where you will be tossed together with colleagues to produce a collective product. The lessons you learn today in how to divide up work, respectfully interact with your teammates, constructively criticize the written work from each group member so that the final product is better than the sum of its parts, and present as one document the work of a group are all important in your development as advocates.
3. How do we choose a law?
Get together with your group and rank at least 12 of the 15 laws listed, as other groups may get to choose before you. You should choose one based on the interests of your group, by alphabetical order, by flipping a coin, or any other method you like. When you give me your prioritized list during office hours on Tuesday, I will then assign you a law based on the highest choice on your list that has not yet been taken by another group. The group that has the 2:00 pm time slot will get to choose first, the group with the 5:45 time slot will choose last (in fact, the group with the last time slot will have only four laws to choose among, as all the other laws will be chosen!).
3. How can I sign up for office hours with you on Tuesday right away?
Please note your entire group has to come to the office hours, so the best thing is to check in with all members of your group before scheduling your session. If you come to office hours without your whole group, you will forfeit your time and be given the 6:00 pm time slot, so coordinate with your group BEFORE you schedule an appointment. Then, you can e-mail me with four choices for the afternoon of April 13 between 2:00 pm and 6:00 p.m., using a quarter hour system (e.g., 2:00, 2:15, 2:30, etc.). You can also come by my office on Tuesday morning to see what slots are available, I will have a list posted outside my office that morning.
4. How are we graded on this assignment?
The assignment is worth 10 points (one-tenth of your grade for this class): three points for each substantive section of the assignment – the history, the overview, and the caselaw – and one point for presentation (how it looks, reads, and presents the info). Each group member is responsible for the final product; you will get one grade (from 1-10) on the assignment, that will be the grade of each member of the group.
5. What is a legislative history?
It is, literally, the history of the evolution of the law in Congress. Each law comes from somewhere. It is the product of negotiation, debate, lobbying and a variety of other political and economic factors. To help the public and the courts interpret its products, Congress publishes legislative histories for most major statutes; these can be found in the Hastings Law Library with the help of the reference librarian. They are official government publications that include
6. What should the legislative and political history section include?
It should include the salient points of the legislative history, as well as any significant amendments to the law since its passage. The section should also include the historical context for the law: why was it passed? What was happening politically in the country that led to Congress proposing and passing the law?
7. What should the overview section include?
What is the law and how does it work? How would you characterize the law – command and control, technology-forcing, health-based, information-forcing, for example – and how is it enforced?
8. What should the caselaw section include?
The caselaw section should summarize significant judicial interpretations of the statute. For some laws, this is a big task – there are dozens of decisions – so you need to start at the top (the Supremes) and work down. For others, there may be no reported decisions at all. Why is that the case?
9. Wow, this seems like a big task, I don’t even know where to start. What should I do?
First, meet with your group and divide up the work. Then, hit the library. Take a look at the law itself, and you can get the legislative history there too. Law review articles are a good place to get an idea of how the law is interpreted, any significant amendments and caselaw on it, and how it is enforced. I am available to discuss approaches during your group consultations on both of the next Tuesdays in my office, and am also available by e-mail for individual queries. Please use the luke@igc.org e-mail as I check it more frequently than my Hastings address. It may seem like a big task, but remember you are responsible for producing just two pages as the final product. Two pages in two weeks – 2/3 of a page each – is not a big task. The big task will be making those two pages trenchant, informative, and correct.
10. I’m concerned that someone in my group is not as diligent as I am, how can I handle this?
I am meeting with all of the groups, twice. At the first meeting this Tuesday I will explore any issues that arose during the last group assignment. At the second meeting, the following Tuesday, I will get a progress report on the rough drafts that are due to the group on that day, so I will be able to readily identify, and work with, students who may be falling behind.
11. What do you mean, " have a rough draft of your section to share with your teammates by the time class meets"?
I mean that on Tuesday, April 20, each member of the group should have a draft of their section of the collective project to share with the other members of their group, and should bring it to class to give to their group members. We will then meet that afternoon, and we can discuss the drafts and how you are doing on them. This will give the three of you a week to polish those drafts and fill in any research holes you may identify in each others’ work. I expect you all to edit each others’ work so that your group produces the strongest possible product.