Environmental Law Programming
Harvard Law School’s Environmental Law Program continues to grow. Under the direction of Professor Jody Freeman, the Program is in the midst of an exciting year marked by developments on several fronts. This year’s Environmental Law Fellow, Miriam Seifter, continues to facilitate the Program’s progress.
The Environmnetal Law Program is please to announce several updates for the 2007-2008 academic year:
First, the new Environmental Law Clinic, under the leadership of Enviromental Law Clinic Director Wendy Jacobs, will afford students an opportunity to do hands-on, meaningful, real-life and real-time environmental legal and policy work. Clinical offerings will include local, national and international projects covering the spectrum of environmental issues.
Second, we are offering a diverse array of environmental law courses for 2007-2008. In addition to the foundational Enviromental Law course, taught by Professor Freeman, several courses and seminars will be taught by visiting professors and lecturers. John Leshy, Professor of Law at UC Hastings College of Law and former Solicitor of Interior, will teach courses in Federal Public Land and Resources Law as well as Water Law; J.B. Ruhl, Professor of Property at Florida State University College of Law will teach Land Use Law and a seminar on the Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services; and Roger Ballentine, former Chairman of the White House Climate Change Task Force under President Bill Clinton, will teach a Winter term course on the Law of Climate Change. Lecturer on Law Tyler Giannini will teach the Human Rights and the Environment Advocacy Seminar in the Fall and Spring. In addition, we expect that Clinical Director Wendy Jacobs will coordinate exciting hands-on work for students over the Winter term.
More broadly, we are in the midst of designing a coherent curriculum that will ensure each HLS student has access to a wide selection of environmental law courses that fits together and proceeds in a logical order. The new curriculum will guarantee students access to core courses like Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, International Environmental Law, and Energy Law, and will complement courses in other fields to prepare students for careers in environmental law, and to enable students who, while not envisioning a career in the field, might wish to educate themselves about environmental and natural resource issues.
Third, we continue to work with HLS’s student groups, including the Environmental Law Society (ELS) and the Harvard Environmental Law Review, as well as our alumni network. Last spring, we featured an Enviromental Speakers Series organized by ELS, and are currently planning several events for the 2007-2008 academic year. In addition, we continue to compile fellowship and job resources for current students and young alumni. Please feel free to contact us to publicize opportunities!
Forth, and finally, we are planning another major conference for the spring of 2008. Following the success of our spring 2006 conference on New Prospects for Climate Change Regulation, which featured leading scholars and policymakers (including Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-NM), Dean Kagan has generously agreed to fund another conference for the 2007-08 year. The topic and tentative agenda will be announced early in the fall semester.
2006-2007 Environmental Law Programming