Curriculum Development
Katrina woke the U.S. to the age of mega-disasters and exposed the human hand in “natural” disasters. Every day, policy makers, institutions, and private citizens alike make decisions through the structures of law that intentionally and unintentionally determine the effects of potential disasters. This course explores the law’s role in relation to circumstances, actions, and decisions crucial to the outcome of disasters. The aim of the course is to illuminate these decisions and their consequences in order that they can be made more deliberatively and 
accountably. The course examines a range of available legal tools, including private incentives, public resources and infrastructure, and institutional accountability, and compares how each relates to the outcome of disasters. The materials and discussions focus on how the law alters and/or allocates the human and economic costs of disasters.
- Law and Catastrophe Syllabus (developed by Georgetown law students for final project)
Loyola Student Developed Materials
- Matthew McLaren
- Carl Blair
- Nelson Bowman