ENSP 330: Introduction to Environmental Law

Instructor: Joanna Goger
Librarian: Judy Markowitz

This guide will assist you in locating resources for your ENSP 330 research paper:
Analysis and Discussion of a Current Environmental Issue.
For additional information, please contact Judy Markowitz, 301-314-1316, judym[@]umd.edu.

Table of Contents

Background Information

• Encyclopedias / Dictionaries / Reference
• Search the Catalog for Additional Books
• CQ Researcher and Greenwire Databases
Locating Law Review Articles
Locating Cases
Locating Legislative History
Locating Statutes
Locating Regulations
Legal Citation
Additional Research Guides

Background Information

• Sullivan, Thomas, ed. Environmental Law Handbook. nineteenth ed. MCK REF KF3775.E58 2007
  Excellent place to start - provides text of the laws, citations, major cases, research sources...)

• Clean Air Act: Step-by-Step Compliance. MCK REF KF3812.A35C5 2002
  Describes the federal regulatory requirements and programs implementing the statute, and what these requirements and programs mean to the regulated community.

• Environment Reporter. MCK REF KF3775.A6E49
  Looseleaf service has eight parts: Federal Laws; Federal Regulations; State Air Laws; State Water Laws; State Solid Waste, Land Use Laws; Current Developments; Monographs; and Mining.

• Environment Reporter: Cases. MCK REF KF3375.A5E62
  "Opinions of federal and state courts in the field of environmental law, with Topical Index, Classification Guide, Index Digest, Table of Cases, Supplemental Table of Cases, and Table of Cases by Jurisdiction."

• Findley, Roger W. Cases and Materials on Environmental Law 6th ed. MCK REF KF3775.A7F56 2003
  Provides augmented coverage of RCRA, the Endangered Species Act, and other issues of environmental enforcement. Coverage of the basic pollution statutes. Includes tables of authority, acronyms, and cases.

• King, James. The Environmental Dictionary and Regulatory Cross Reference. MCK REF KF3775.A68K57 1995

• Lee, C.C. Dictionary of Environmental Legal Terms. MCK REF KF3775.A68L44 1997

• Patton-Hulce, Vivki. Environment and the Law: a dictionary. MCK REF KF3775.A68P38 1995

• Wagner, Travis. The Complete Guide to the Hazardous Waste Regulations: RCRA, TSCA, HMTA, OSHA, and Superfund. 3rd ed. MCK REF KF3946.W34 1999
  Details applicability, state requirements, petitions, key definitions, classification, standards, permits, enforcement, corrective actions, etc.

• Wooley, David. Clean Air Act Handbook: a practical guide to compliance. thirteenth ed. MCK REF KF3812.M69 2003

• American Jurisprudence 2d (AmJur 2d). Westlaw Campus Research
  Legal encyclopedia on state and federal law. Provides comprehensive research references for each topic.

• Black, Henry Campbell. Black's Law Dictionary. Westlaw Campus Research
  The most widely used law dictionary, includes authoritative definitions and often provides cites to the court case that defined a particular word or term.

• Corpus Juris Secundum (CJS). MCK REF KF100.C63
  Legal encyclopedia arranged by title (subject) of American law. Kept up-to-date by cumulative annual pocket parts, replacement volumes, and additional, extra numbered and lettered volumes.

Use the Catalog to locate books on your topic.
Make sure to choose campus and select USMAI all campuses so you can identify and request books from one of the UM law school libraries in Baltimore.

  SEARCH BY ACT OR PHRASE: (Look for additional subject headings)

SEARCH FOR HORNBOOKS AND NUTSHELLS (legal introductory "textbooks"
Use the words anywhere search
Examples: Environmental Law and (nutshell or hornbook)
"Clean Water Act" and hearings

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• CQ Researcher
  Full-text coverage of the CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Researcher from 1992 to the present that provides comprehensive analysis of each topic, including history and background information, relevant pro & con arguments, current status, bibliographies, contact information, and outlooks on upcoming "hot topics" in current events.

• Greenwire
  Comprehensive, daily coverage of environmental and energy politics and policy, includes summaries of important energy and environmental policy coverage from hundreds of print, broadcast and online sources, including editorials. Greenwire's archive of key documents provides direct links to reports, analyses, memos, court cases and over 30,000 Greenwire stories. Includes new video and transcripts.

Locating Law Review Articles

• Westlaw Campus Research
  Be sure to click on the Law tab!
  

  "Strictly speaking, a law review is a student-edited publication which is produced under the auspices of a law school and which publishes both pieces written by legal scholars and student-written articles and notes. Law reviews may be general in scope or devoted to specialized subject areas. Law review articles which are written by noted scholars may be citable as persuasive authority under some circumstances. They are always heavily footnoted and thus can serve as a tremendous resource for the researcher."(Thurgood Marshall Law Library, http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/researchguides/TMLLguide/3sec2.html)

  Known Citation
  Examples: 44 Tulsa L. Rev. 51 / 17 Penn St. Envtl. L. Rev. 81
  

  

  Keywords
  

  There are many strategies for locating law review articles on a topic:
  "acid rain" and forest!
  ti("acid rain") and forest!
  "acid rain" /s forest! (acid rain must be in the same sentence as forest!)
  "acid rain" /p forest! (acid rain must be in the same paragraph as forest!
  "acid rain" /p forest! /p "clean air act"
  "acid rain" /5 forest! (acid rain must be within 5 words of forest!)
  

  Also limit by date or add more keywords

  

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  Locating Cases

  • Westlaw Campus Research
    Be sure to click on the Law tab!
    Known Citation
    Example: 811 F. Supp 524
    

    Key Word/s or Topic
    If you do not know the party names or citation, try to find it through using secondary sources, such as encyclopedias or law reviews, or try a Key Search
    

    

    For United States Supreme Court cases only, you also can use the CQ Supreme Court database.

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    Locating Legislative History

    • Lexis-Nexis Congressional
      Access to Congressional documents from 1789 to the present, with much of the material from the 1980's forward available full-text. Also includes legislative histories, laws, regulations, and information about Congress, as well as full-text access to the U.S. Congressional Serial Set from 1789-1969.

    • Government 101: How a Bill Becomes a Law (Project Vote Smart)
      http://www.votesmart.org/resource_govt101_02.php

    • The Legislative Process (C-SPAN)
      http://www3.capwiz.com/c-span/issues/basics/?style=legis

    Locating Statutes

    Federal statutes are published in the following order: first as slip laws; then as session laws in U.S.C.C.A.N. (U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News - issued monthly in pamphlet form during each session of congress - then reissued in bound vols) and United States Statutes at Large (Stat.) (compilation of the acts and resolutions that become law from each session of Congress, printed in chronological order); next as code in the United States Code; and finally as annotated code. (complete text of the United States Code with historical notes, cross-references, and casenotes of federal and state decisions construing specific Code sections) The U.S. Code is arranged in fifty subjects known as Titles. Titles are divided into chapters and then into sections. After each statutory section in the U.S. Code there is a reference to its source in the Statutes at Large, including sources for any amendments.

    Westlaw Campus Research
    Known Citation
    Example: 42 U.S.C. 7401
    

    keyword search
    

    Try to find the correct citation, a keyword search will most likely bring up too many results. But, if you do use a keyword search:
    Choose Statutes and Regulations and United States Code Annotated
    Another source:
    

    Lexis Nexis Congressional
    Choose Legislative Histories, Bills, and Laws

    State Statutes

    
    Known Citation
    Example: MD Code, Environment, 4-101.1
    Keyword Search:
    Choose Statutes and Regulations and State Statutes, and choose a state. Example: "Chesapeake Bay" and pollution
    

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    Locating Regulations

    Federal Regulatory Information Guide

    Regulations are published in two basic formats, first chronologically and then arranged into subjects. The Federal Register (FR) is issued every business day. Regulations are later published in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) which is arranged by issuing agency and subject.

    Westlaw Campus Research
    Known Citation
    Example: 18 CFR 806.2
    

    Keyword Search:
    Choose Statutes and Regulations and Code of Federal Regulations and Federal Register
    Example: "Clean Water Act" and forest!
    

    Or State Administrative Codes and choose a state.
    

    In addition, Regulations are found in HeinOnline Federal Register Library.
    

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    Environmental and Issues Databases

    • CQ Weekly
      Weekly congressional news and analysis. Full text available from 1983 -- present.

    • Ecology Abstracts
      Index to current ecology research across a wide range of disciplines, reflecting recent advances in light of growing evidence regarding global environmental change and destruction. Ecology Abstracts focuses on how organisms of all kinds - microbes, plants, and animals - interact with their environments and with other organisms. Included are relevant papers on evolutionary biology, economics, and systems analysis as they relate to ecosystems or the environment. 1982 to the present.

    • EDTE World Energy Database
      Information on the environmental impact of energy production and use, including climate change; energy R&D; energy policy; nuclear, coal, hydrocarbon and renewable energy technologies and more. Includes over 953,500 bibliographic records from early 1995 forward.

    • Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management Abstracts
      Multidisciplinary database with abstracts and citations drawn from over 5980 serials including scientific journals, conference proceedings, reports, monographs, books and government publications.

    • Water Resources Abstracts
      Provides summaries of the world's technical and scientific literature on water-related topics covering the characteristics, conservation, control, pollution, treatment, use and management of water resources. Abstracts are drawn from journals, books, conference proceedings, and technical reports in the physical and life sciences, as well as from engineering, legal and government publications.

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    Legal Citation

    Legal citations are very specifically formatted and include many abbreviations,and they can be a challenge to create or understand.

    • Legal Citations- Finding Materials in McKeldin Library http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/legalcitations.html

    • The Bluebook : A Uniform System of Citation, 17th ed. MCK REF QCKREF KF245.B58 2000
      This is the basic legal citation handbook. Includes great detail but also provides a short list of the basic rules. Also includes helpful tables of abbreviations.

    • Introduction to Basic Legal Citation
      Cornell site based on the 17th edition of the "Bluebook."
      http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/

    • Reading Legal Citations, an online guide complied by the Boston College Law Library, provides a more concise guide to the basics of citing legal sources and deciphering citations.
      http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/library/meta-elements/pdf/researchguides/citations.pdf

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    Additional Research Guides

    • Environmental Law Resources (Thurgood Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland School of Law)
      http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/researchguides/specialtypages/environmentalresources.html

    • Finding Congressional Hearings
      http://www.lib.umd.edu/UMCP/GOV/hearings.html

    • Finding Federal Legislative Information
      http://www.lib.umd.edu/GOV/legs.html

    • Finding Federal Regulatory Information
      http://www.lib.umd.edu/GOV/regs.html

    • Finding U.S. Government Documents in the University of Maryland Libraries
      http://www.lib.umd.edu/UMCP/GOV/basic.html

    • Maryland Law Resources
      http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/MDLawResources.html

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