Methodology
1. Identify an environmental issue that matters to you and write a brief overview.
Use a topic from the list provided or suggest one by using:
a. Research guides (subject-based or library catalog).
b. News articles
c. Law review articles.
Search for any unknown terms in a legal dictionary, such as Bouvier’s Dictionary.
2. Use secondary sources, such as law review articles from Lexis Uni.
Review the articles and select the relevant ones. Identify the article using Blue Book citation and write a small blurb summarizing the article (250 words).
3. Find the statute or administrative rule that will provide the foundation for answering your question.
Environmental law is primarily statutory law, so identifying statues relevant to your question is a good place to start.
Remember secondary sources (clio.columbia.edu or Lexis Uni) are your best friend when it comes to starting legal research.
4. Ask a question of interest regarding your research topic.
What are you curious to learn about your topic of interest? What question do you think others may be curious about? Talk among yourselves and raise questions in class.
5. Search for the relevant cases that interpret statutory or administrative law and make sure they are still good law.
Throughout this project, you will familiarize yourself with an environmental issue and develop an answerable research question based on your environmental issue of interest. You will learn how to use secondary sources to identify relevant statutory and administrative law. Finally, you will research legal cases that interpret the relevant statutory and administrative law while making sure that your answer contains the existing, binding law.
As you research your topic of interest, return to Introduction to U.S. Law, Policy, and Research: Chapter 3 – Thinking about Law as an Object of Research – Basic Principles of Legal Research.
Example: Organic Foods Consumption and Environmental Law
1. Identify an environmental issue that matters to you and write a brief overview:
Organic food consumption and environmental law (using https://clio.columbia.edu)
Demand for organic foods has increased dramatically in the fast few decades, with approximately $92 billions USD spent on organic products annually (Vigar, 2019). The reason for the increase is varied, including individuals preferencing environmental-friendly products and consumer health and wellbeing (Vigar, 2019). Longitudinal studies show evidence that consumers are making the right choice in consuming organic products; increased organic intake was associated with reduced incidence of infertility, birth defects, and other health problems (Lu, 2008). But does it matter types of foods we consume from an environmental perspective?
2. Ask a question of interest regarding your research topic: What counts as organic food?
While the benefits of consuming organic foods as opposed to non-organic foods is significant, the border between what is an organic food is not obvious. Also not obvious is the impact of promoting uniformity on organic foods, such as soybeans on the land. Can restaurants and grocery stores market foods as organic no matter the production process? If not, what exactly are the regulations constraining organic foods?
3: Use secondary sources, such as law review articles from Lexis Uni. Review the articles and select the relevant ones. Identify the article using Blue Book citation and write a small blurb summarizing the article (250 words).
4. Find the statute or administrative rule that will provide the foundation for answering your question.
Step 1: Look at the United States Code (USC): https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/uscode
Step 2: Browse the USC 2021 - Identify the most relevant title: Title 7: Agriculture (Sections 1-9206)
Step 3: Browse the sections by chapter by opening the Title’s table of contents:
If I want to know about certification of organic foods, then the answer I am after is “Organic Certification,” which appears under Chapter 94, section 6501.
Step 4: Return to the USC browse page and open Chapter 94. Open the text for the table of contents and identify the sections that look relevant.
