Public Law Research Institute

Supplemental Environmental Projects: A Fifty State Survey with Model Practices - a unique online resource. "This comprehensive study offers state and local lawmakers and policymakers, industry, and community advocates a thorough and insightful analysis of the opportunities and challenges presented by the use of supplemental environmental projects. Read in its entirety, this report is roadmap for all stakeholders in designing appropriate, acceptable and beneficial SEPs that can satisfy multiple community environmental needs and goals." Patricia Salkin, Associate Dean and Director Government Law Center Albany Law School

"The Law and Policy of Sex Offender Residency Restrictions: An Analysis of Proposition 83" - with updates and links of interest.

Founded by Professor Julian Levi at Hastings College of the Law in 1983, the Public Law Research Institute (PLRI) analyzes legal issues that currently confront California's state and local governments, at the request of various state and local governmental offices, including the California Senate Office of Research and the Research Bureau of the California State Library. The range of topics varies from year to year, and is as broad as the spectrum of issues state and local governments confront. Past topics have included legislative responses to the AIDS crisis, corporate governance, election reform, welfare reform, economic development, crime control, health care reform, and more.

PLRI is part of UC Hastings' Center for State and Local Government Law, which provides clinical opportunities for Hastings and other UC system students to gain experience in Sacramento and supplements existing technical training for legislators and legislative staff through seminars at Hastings and in the Capitol.

Selected Reports:

Smart Growth

• California Responses to Supercenter Development
  A Survey of Ordinances, Cases and Elections, Spring 2004
• State Comprehensive Planning in California, Spring 2002
• Competing Models for "Smart Growth" in California, Spring 2002
• Smart Growth State by State, Spring 2001

Environmental Justice

• Environmental Justice for All: A Fifty-State Survey of Legislation, Policies and Initiatives, January 2004
• Opportunities for Environmental Justice in California: Agency by Agency, May 2003
• Environmental Justice: A Review of State Responses, December 2000

Other Reports

• The Law of Language: How Official is English in California? (forthcoming)
• Becoming a Charter City (hosted by the Institute on Local Self-Governance)
• Law Enforcement in Indian Country: The Struggle for a Solution, Summer 2001