Welcome to the Environmental Law research guide. This guide is intended to help you start your research of environmental law issues by outlining the authoritative environmental law in the U.S. and directing to other relevant resources. Environmental law is currently a very complicated category of law as it changes quickly and is still evolving. This is partially because the law changes with continued scientific research and developments. This guide is a starting place for research; it is by no means comprehensive.
Lexis's Environmental Law page has cases, statutes, secondary materials, and other resources, along with specific search tools for the topic.
Though less extensive, Westlaw has complied a similar page. Its Energy & Environment page has cases, statutes, secondary materials, and other resources.
Bloomberg Law has an Environment & Energy News page, which is a great tool for staying up-to-date on the most recent developments.
The basic environmental law research methodology is similar to other areas of legal research, with a couple of added steps:
1. Establish the facts.
2. Identify the issues.
3. Locate authority.
4. Evaluate authority - make sure to evaluate for credibility, objectivity, accuracy, scope, and currency.
5. Locate scientific and/ or technical developments.
6. Evaluate scientific and/ or technical developments.
Repeat steps 1-6 as necessary to complete research and analysis of issues.
7. Develop conclusions and recommendations.
8. Communicate research results and recommendations.
This research guide was written in October 2021 by USD Law student Lilly Walker.
Inspiration was drawn from the UCLA Environmental Law Research Guide.
