This is an important and timely book that emphasizes the centrality of environmental justice to the practice of environmental law. -- Robert Bullard, Texas Southern University, USA Students often find the complex regulatory and technical aspects of environmental law abstract, at a far remove from the living, breathing people who experience environmental harm and struggle for environmental protection. In this outstanding book, Rebecca Bratspies and Carmen Gonzalez revitalize the study of environmental law by recentering it around human beings. They show how the fight for environmental justice and environmental human rights is integral to environmental protection. They explain how US law often fails to achieve environmental justice, and how advocates continue to pursue it with creativity and passion. -- John H. Knox, Wake Forest University, School of Law, USA Teaching Environmental Law in Context is a refreshing and much-needed guide that reimagines the classroom as a space for critical inquiry and thought. Bratspies and Gonzalez offer educators a powerful toolkit - compact yet expansive - that centers the systemic inequities too often excluded from traditional environmental law texts. Their approach embeds racial and economic justice into the fabric of every chapter, equipping teachers to cultivate a generation of practitioners committed to transformative change. -- Sheila R. Foster, Columbia Climate School, USA Environmental law is a challenging subject to teach even for the most experienced professors. The field inexorably grows in complexity and is buffeted by political controversies that often produce sharp changes in law and policy. Teaching Environmental Law in Context provides an important new resource to invigorate the classrooms of both experienced and novice professors. Written by two of the most accomplished teachers and scholars in the field, it provides fresh new ideas for focusing classroom discussions. It directly tackles issues of environmental justice and shows how to integrate them throughout the course. It addresses how to help students appreciate the complex forces that shape environmental law and policy and the real world consequences of regulatory changes. Accessible to professors in a variety of disciplines, Teaching Environmental Law in Context is superbly organized to adapt to whatever decisions a professor makes concerning subject matter coverage. And it is likely to inspire its users to explore new territory to the benefit of both them and their students. -- Robert V. Percival, University of Maryland, Francis King Carey School of Law, USA In the best of times, organizing an environmental law course is like packing a squid into a carry-on bag. Add mounting climate threats and upheavals in regulatory law, and the task looks impossible. Until you read Teaching Environmental Law in Context. In this smart and accessible book, Bratspies and Gonzalez build a framework for presenting environmental topics and controversies to suit a variety of needs and disciplinary perspectives. Whether you are a seasoned expert or new to the field, this book deserves your attention. -- Robert Verchick, Loyola University New Orleans, College of Law, USA Today, accelerating climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, exacerbated by systemic inequalities and discrimination, are severely impacting the United States. UN and Inter-American human rights bodies are increasingly documenting these impacts and identifying effective actions and solutions. This eye-opening book can help activists, government officials, and UN human rights experts understand the current structure of US environmental law, including its contribution to environmental injustice, in order to develop advocacy strategies that can produce fundamental change. -- Astrid Puentes Riaño, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and The Environment This book by Professors Bratspies and Gonzalez is an indispensable guide to federal environmental laws passed to protect people and ecosystems, but also to the social, scientific and political dynamics that continue to shape them - for better or worse. The book will be useful not only to legal professionals but also to scholars in other disciplines, to environmental advocates, and to the general public. -- Andrew Revkin, prominent science and environmental journalist, podcaster, and author Teaching Environmental Law in Context will be useful not only to faculty who teach environmental law but also environmental justice advocates looking for a clear, succinct and engaging summary of the law with EJ at its core. The authors use innovative teaching methods that place fundamental environmental laws and statutes in their social justice context - making environmental law come alive, and thus more likely to be retained. It may be a breakthrough when it comes to teaching a subject that can seem designed to make your eyes hurt when you read the original text. Bravo professors Bratspies and Gonzalez! -- Vernice Miller-Travis, Metropolitan Group, USA
