Course Syllabus: Risk Assessment

Our objectives

The mercury case study is a convenient means of teaching you how scientists themselves critique scientific information, and how risk asssessments apply scientific information to policy and law.

For much of the semester, our perspective is that of a scientist. We will read and critique real scientific papers and scientific studies as a scientist would. In this way, you will learn tools useful for distinguishing reliable from unreliable science. These tools are quite general, and can be employed not only to analyze the particular mercury risk assessment we will focus on in class, but will also be applicable to other risk assessments.

Towards the end of the semester, we will shift focus and think about different social institutions that society uses to reduce risk. Our focus is on the Clean Air Mercury Rule. But this discussion will range broadly over risk and tort law, cost-benefit analysis, technology-based standards, and even risk in financial markets.

A final focus this semester is on human perception of risk. The bottom line is that humans are irrational. And a rational analysis of risk assessment has to be based on this fact!

Class location and times

Tuesday and Thursday. 11:20-12:35.
Map Room, Debevoise Hall

Instructor

Craig Pease

office: Top floor of Debevoise Hall, next to the large skylight.

office phone (off campus): (802) 831-1307
office phone (on campus): 1307

email: cpease@vermontlaw.edu.
I monitor my email closely, and this is generally the quickest way to reach me.

office hours: Tuesday and Thursday. 2-3, and by appointment.
Please drop by anytime (during my office hours or not), even if you don't have an appointment. If you want an appointment at some time outside of my office hours, please email me.

Course Calendar and Required reading

The Course Calendar shows the topics for each class. To find the "Required reading" and "Questions for class discussion" for a particular class, go the Course Calendar, and follow the appropriate hot link.

Almost all of the required reading is in the Required Course Pack, available for purchase in hardcopy from Barrister's bookstore. Although some of the readings in the Required Course Pack are also available online, I strongly recommend you purchase the hard copy. My experience is that students generally find it easier to read and study a hard copy, and I have found that class discussion flows better when each student has a hard copy of the reading available in class.

In a few instances, required readings are drawn from material available only online; the Required WWW Resources lists these.

Also required for this course is a book that I have coauthored with Jim Bull entitled Science for Business, Law and Journalism. There are minor differences between the hard copy and electronic versions of this book, none of which should be important. For your information, the electronic version of the book contains the most recent revisions. If you find a discrepancy between the two versions of this book that you think is important, please bring it to my attention.

For some classes, I have listed supplemental reading as well as required reading. The supplemental readings arejust that. By no means are they required or even suggested. I provide them for your edification, should you want to know where to look for further information.

How to do well in this course

Its pretty simple, actually:
  1. Prior to class, read the "Required Reading" and go over the "Questions for class discussion" both
    available through the appropriate hot link in the Course Calendar
  2. Attend class, and finally
  3. After class, work the sample final exam questions and review the Questions for class discussion
Except in truly extraordinary circumstances, it is important that you read "Required reading" and "Questions for class discussion" prior to class, and that you attend class. Finally, get into the habit of working a few sample final exam questions after each class. I specifically recommend that you not wait until the end of the semester to look at these.

Grades and attendance

Your grade will be determined by:
  1. Final exam 300 points
  2. Attendance 50 points
  3. Preparation for class 30 points
  4. Extraordinary class contribution 20 points
As regards attendance, the Vermont Law School Student Handbook states that "students are required to attend all classes except where religious observance, serious illness, personal emergency, or a reason adequate in the judgement of the professor prevent attendance." I expect all students to adhere to this policy (and all other relevant VLS policies, for that matter). Moreover, I define "personal emergency" narrowly to include death or serious illness of a close family member or friend, and "a reason adequate in the judgement of the professor" narrowly to include attendance at off-campus moot courts as well as unavoidable scheduling conflicts with other classes (for example with a makeup class).

I assign attendance grades as follows:

Note that you can be absent 4 times without any consequences, and without the need to provide me with any documentation---actually I do not want to hear from you in this circumstance---we both have better things to do with our time. If you are absent 5 or more times, I will assume that all of your absences were unexcused, unless you provide me with acceptable documentation showing that you had an adequate excuse for all classes where you were absent. For example, if you are absent from 5 classes and you provide me with adequate documentation showing that 4 absences were excused, you will still receive only 40 points. To receive the full 50 points, you must provide me with adequate documentation for all 5 absences. Notwithstanding anything else stated in this Syllabus, my policy is to give an F-Wd to any student absent from 6 or more classes.

Each student starts the semester with full credit for the "Class preparation" grade component (i.e. 30 points). I deduct from 1-5 points each time you come to class obviously unprepared. I realize that on rare occassion you may be unable to adequately prepare for class, and if such an unavoidable circumstance should arise, please inform me immediately before class, and I will not call on you.

Each student starts the semester with no credit for the "Extraordinary class contribution" grade component (i.e. 0 points). I do not give any extra credit to students who make lots of comments in class, without saying anything particularly informative, though I do not deduct points for this either. Rather, I particularly want to encourage students to (i) draw connections between the course material and their own experiences, (ii)find errors in the course material, (iii) point out alternative explanations or interpretations of the course material, and (iv) explain the course material to your classmates in novel and useful ways.

The final exam

What the final exam will look like.--- The final exam will consist mostly of short answer questions, with perhaps some multiple choice questions, and perhaps one or two short essay questions. You will be expected to write your answer to each question on the exam using only the space provided (thus the space provided is a guide to how detailed an answer I desire). My past exams are a good model of the format and content of this year's final exam.

Sample final exam questions.---I want to make it easy for you to do well in this course. Thus throughout the course of the semester, I will post an extensive list of Sample final exam questions. Although many of these sample final exam questions are posted early in the semester, I will also post additional questions throughout the semester. To help keep us organized, I will record on the list of Sample final exam questions the date that each problem was posted.

I guarantee that at least 70% of the final exam will be taken verbatim from the Sample final exam questions and from the Questions for class discussion. I do reserve the right to make very minor editorial changes to these questions (my goal in doing this is always to clarify the question, and to thus make it easier to answer), and to change the order that multiple-choice options are presented.

How to study for the final.--- In baseball terminology, the Sample final exam questions and the Questions for class discussion are a slow fat pitch right down the middle of the plate. Clobber it. Not only do I disclose what material will be on the exam, I also disclose most of the questions themselves. My goal in this is to tell you, as explicitly as I know how, what material I regard as important, so that you can learn it.

I strongly recommend that you carefully work through a significant number of these problems. Do not wait until the end of the semester to look at the Sample final exam problems and Questions for class discussion.

Comprehensive list of materials relevant to the final exam.--- In the interests of full disclosure, I want to draw your attention to the following list, which summarizes all material that I think is at all relevant and/or useful to this semester's final exam:

Administrative details.--- The final exam will be closed book. You will not be permitted to refer to a study outline, or any materials except those I provide you with the exam.

It is likely that I will attached a complete copy one or more scientific papers to the exam, and asked the various questions about it. Often, but not always, these scientific papers are ones included in the Required Course Pack, or that I distributed at some point during the semester.

You will not need a blue book.

In the past, students have occassionally asked to take the final early, so that they can make more convienent and/or less expensive travel plans. This is generally not possible under the relevant Vermont Law School policies.

You will not be permitted to use ExamSoft on the final exam. The short answer question format that I employ is not well suited to ExamSoft.

The course www site will change during the semester

In past years, some students have decided, at the very beginning of the semester, to print off the entire course web site. I strongly recommend against doing this. I regularly add material to the course web site throughout the semester. Thus, any material you print may soon out of date.