WSES 3385 Fish and Wildlife Laws and Administration Fall 2021
Semester Term Paper Assignment
Each student has been assigned a Federal wildlife or environmental law (next page). They must complete an independent research paper that addresses the following questions:
1. What was the motivation for passage of the original act? If you are addressing a law that has been amended or supersedes a previous law, go back to the original act to discuss. Explain the historical context of the law and the problems it sought to address.
2. Summarize the law in detail, making sure you address all its sections. What actions does it prohibit? How are those actions regulated? What are the penalties for violations? How does the law promote fish, wildlife, natural resource, or environmental conservation?
3. How has the law been amended over time (if it has been)? If there are amendments to a law, briefly discuss each of the amendments and why the amendments were passed. Discuss how the amendments have changed how the law has been applied.
4. How has the law been applied? Explain how the law has been used to solve wildlife or environmental issues. Discuss major court cases that settled important matters of the law, especially cases brought before the Supreme Court of the United States. Some laws will have only a few cases, whereas others (e.g., the Endangered Species Act) will have many. Especially focus on cases that expanded or restricted the scope of the law. Focus on court cases that addressed significant issues. You should seek out court cases that interpret the statute, as well as those that address constitutional issues. For example, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act raised important Treaty Clause issues.
5. Discuss some significant proposed changes to the law that have not been passed. These can include changes currently before Congress or that have been introduced in Congress in the past (and failed), as well as significant change proposals that have never been introduced. Describe why these changes were proposed. Remember to include not only changes that would have, in your opinion, improved the law but those that would have changed it negatively as well. For example, over the years there have been many efforts to weaken or even repeal the Endangered Species Act. Why do people want to do this?
6. Your paper should include at least 10 references, no more than two of which may be websites. You are free to (and should) use a variety of published references in support of your paper. These may include statutes, regulations, proposed bills, case briefs, law review articles, legislative memoranda, news articles, opinion pieces, and peer- reviewed publications. Remember, Wikipedia is not a quality source and should not be cited in your paper. However, it is a good place to start for an overview of the law and will point you to better sources. I encourage you to let your literature search roam far and wide. Google Scholar is a good search engine for this.
The paper should be 5,000 7,500 words in length (not counting the literature cited). Papers should be prepared in MLA style
