Property, Real Estate Law & Environmental Law

Practice what's necessary to succeed in a growing field

The Moritz College of Law prepares students interested in property, real estate law, and environmental law by exposing them to both an academic foundation and hands-on training. The course offerings spread across several areas of property, real estate law, and environment.

Moritz’s Property course is a mandatory part of the first-year curriculum for all J.D. students. The course is a survey designed to explore the concept that “property” is not a thing, but rather “denotes legal relations between persons with respect to a thing.” The traditional property course leads into a wealth of offerings for students interested in real estate development, and other property issues.

In the upper-level curriculum, a number of courses build on the Property foundation with regard to real estate. These include Real Estate Transactions, Real Estate Finance, Landlord-Tenant Law, Land Use Planning and Government Regulation, and Eminent Domain. Other groups of upper-level property courses involve wills, trusts, and estates.

Another course in the upper-class curriculum that may be of particular interest to the property law practitioner is Environmental Law, which is a survey course of U.S. environmental law, covering topics including environmental assessment, clean air, clean water, waste management, and endangered species.  Professor Cinnamon Carlarne is a leading expert in climate change and the law. Her scholarship focuses on the evolution of system of domestic and international environmental governance and includes a book on comparative climate change law and policy with Oxford University Press, a series of journal articles and book chapters exploring questions of domestic and international environmental law, and a forthcoming textbook on seas, society and human well-being. She is on the editorial board for the Climate Law Journal (IOS Press) and the newly established Transnational Environmental Law journal, to be launched by Cambridge University Press in 2012.

Real estate and development law is a dynamic and growing practice area, and Moritz students have an unprecedented opportunity to get first-hand experience. The College offers an innovative, hands-on Real Estate Development Law course that is routinely praised by both students and potential employers. The course mixes simulated negotiations, city council meetings, and real estate deals to provide students the practical experience and knowledge that real estate development firms and law firms are seeking. The program fills a niche of providing hands-on learning in real estate development law and deals that American law schools often miss.

The ground-breaking course is different than traditional law courses in that it places students in the middle of simulated real estate deals. Students learn about the business, how to effectively represent their clients, and what to expect once they graduate. The course uses a case study approach, which emphasizes the needs of the client at each stage of the real estate development process (beginning with the initial acquisition of the project site through the ultimate sale of the developed project).

Moritz students can also further their experience as part of the Real Estate Law Association. The student group hopes to further discussion on the area of law, draw interesting speakers regarding real estate law, and host thought-provoking programming.