Law 792: Protecting Tropical Treasures: Environmental Policy in Costa Rica

Professors Heidi M. Hurd and Ralph Brubaker (Illinois College of Law)

 In this two-credit graded course, students will learn about the impacts of climate change on tropical ecosystems and hydrological cycles; the effects of agri-business on local people, indigenous species, critical habitat, and migratory corridors; the methods and significance of sustainable forest management practices; the pros and cons of eco-tourism; the impacts of invasive species on both land and coral reef systems; and the legal tools that have succeeded and failed at inducing sustainable practices within a rapidly developing nation.

 The course will expose students to three distinct regions of Costa Rica, each with their own lessons about the regulatory means by which sustainable choices can be encouraged or discouraged.  The course will begin in the legendary tropical "cloud forests" of the Monteverde region in north-western Costa Rica. There students will learn how tropical forests function, explore the effects of climate change on these planetary “lungs,” master how sustainable management practices can protect life-saving biodiversity, investigate how coffee is grown and what its costs are on the local ecosystem, and take up the significance of private land conservation strategies and the challenges of reforestation in the region.

 Students will then travel across the continental divide to the eastern Sarapiqui region of the country to learn about the environmental impacts of large export agriculture. There students will visit a large pineapple plantation, meet with local activists who have been waging a multi-year legal battle to protect local communities from the water pollution caused by agricultural run-off, explore the ways in which consumer choices in far distant countries impact on local practices in ways that create food waste and environmental degradation. From Sarapiqui students will venture on to Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, where they will critically investigate whether eco-tourism is really an effective tool for conservation, meet with local fishers to learn about the devastating impacts of saltwater invasive species (particularly Lionfish) and the hardships posed by commercial overfishing, and snorkel through the Caribbean coral reef to witness first-hand both its spectacular biodiversity and the impacts of climate change on its sensitive species.

 Prerequisites: Enrollment in this course is by application only. There are no pre-requisites for this course. But priority will be given to students who have provable interests in environmental/sustainability issues, social justice issues, and/or international development/trade issues, all broadly conceived. Such interests can be demonstrated through past course work (in high school, undergraduate studies, and law/graduate work), by enrollment in Fall 2025 courses at the College of Law or within other University of Illinois colleges/departments that address these kinds of issues, as well as by past employment, volunteerism, and travel experiences. If you do not have relevant school, work, volunteer, or travel experience, you may write a short essay explaining your desire to enroll in the course as a means of providing a basis for believing that you will be an active, engaged, committed student whose involvement will be based on course-related interests rather than a desire for mere tourism.

Evaluation: Course requirements will include group work during Fall 2025 to prepare for the guest speakers/lecturers of the course. Each group will be responsible for researching one of the topics to which lectures will be devoted during the course in Costa Rica. Each group will prepare by generating a set of questions that can be transmitted in advance of the lecture to speaker who is slated to give the lecture, and which can be posed to the speaker at the time of the lecture. On the basis of the research into the assigned topic, each group will be tasked with compiling a short set of readings (no more than 20 pages) that will provide the larger class with an appreciation of the importance of the topic.  These readings will be due on Monday, February 16, 2026. Active participation in all of the course learning experiences will be expected and will count toward students’ final grades in the course.  Students should plan to ask questions during field trips and during Q-and-A sessions at the close of lectures, and they should be actively engaged with all facets of the trip. After the January 2026 trip, each student will have a month to write an 8-10-page policy paper on a topic/issue relevant to, or inspired by, the course. The paper should reflect a mastery of the literature that concerns the issue, advance a strong thesis concerning how the issue should be managed, take seriously counter-arguments to that thesis, and demonstrate persuasive and cogent writing skills and an analytically crisp organization. These papers will be due a month after the end of the course travel, on Monday, February 16, 2026.