Environmental Law Program

Harvard Law School’s Environmental Law Program continues its impressive expansion during the 2011-12 academic year. Under the direction of Professor Jody Freeman LL.M. '91 S.J.D. '95 and with the expertise of Professor Richard Lazarus '79, the Program is in the midst of an exciting year marked by developments on several fronts:

New faculty

Professor Richard J. Lazarus ‘79, expert in environmental law and Supreme Court advocacy, joins HLS’s full-time environmental faculty

Professor Lazarus comes to Harvard from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught environmental law, natural resources law, Supreme Court advocacy, and torts as the Justice William J. Brennan Professor of Law and faculty co-director of Georgetown’s Supreme Court Institute. 

He also recently served as executive director of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, appointed by President Barack Obama ’91, to investigate the root causes of the Gulf oil spill. 

Professor Lazarus’s 2004 book, The Making of Environmental Law, is widely hailed as the definitive history of the emergence and evolution of modern environmental law in the United States. 

He has also represented the United States, state and local governments, and environmental groups in the U.S. Supreme Court in approximately 40 cases, many of which raised natural resource and environmental law issues.

Spring 2011 courses

Professor Lazarus will offer courses on Advanced Environmental Law and Environmental Law and the Supreme Court in Spring 2012.

Learn more

• Richard J. Lazarus appointed Professor of Law at Harvard, April 20, 2011 >>
• Lazarus honored with ABA Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy, August 17, 2011 >>

Upcoming conferences

Water Federalism: Comparative Perspectives on Water Institutions in Federal Systems, April 19-21, 2012

On April 19-21, 2012, The Environmental Law Program and Harvard University’s Water Security Initiative will present “Water Federalism: Comparative Perspectives on Water Institutions in Federal Systems.” 

The conference will bring together practitioners, policymakers, and scholars from a handful of countries with federal systems to examine the legal, policy, and technical challenges of managing water across state boundaries.  Its specific focus will be on five river basins located within Australia, Brazil, Pakistan, and the United States. The conference will address: 

• the existing water institutions in each of these basins, 
• current challenges facing these institutions, and 
• potential measures for navigating these challenges.  

All of these topics will be explored from a comparative perspective.

Student scholarship to be featured prominently

The Water Federalism conference will prominently feature student scholarship. Student research fellows from HLS, the Harvard Kennedy School, the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Harvard School of Public Health, and elsewhere in the University will work in teams to write a report detailing the salient features and governing legal institutions of each basin. 

To compile these reports, each student research team will spend the coming January term conducting on-site research in their basin, including consultations with practitioners, policymakers, and scholars in the basin. 

Student Water Fellows will present these reports at the Water Federalism conference. The reports will provide a jumping-off point for conference panelists’ discussions on how to meet challenges in each basin. Biographies of the Student Water Fellows are available here. (.pdf)

Recent events

HLS hosts leading scholars and practitioners for panel discussion on Supreme Court’s environmental docket

On September 28, 2011, HLS hosted the Environmental Law Institute’s annual Supreme Court Review and Preview. 

HLS Professors Jody Freeman and Richard Lazarus joined ELI President John C. Cruden and E. Donald Elliott, Professor (adjunct) of Law, Yale Law School and Georgetown University Law Center, and Partner, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, to analyze major environmental cases from the Court’s 2010-2011 Term and highlight important cases for the coming 2011-2012 Term.

Learn more

Go to complete event coverage and view video >>

Expanding academic program 

New additions to diverse environmental law course offerings

In Spring 2011, Professor Jody Freeman offered Harvard Law School’s first-ever course in Climate and Energy Law and Policy. The course, which covered an array of topics in energy and climate studies—including advancements in electricity transmission, the economics of nuclear power, and current developments in hydrofracking and carbon capture and sequestration technology and law—was enhanced by the participation of a number of distinguished speakers from the Obama Administration and from the broader Harvard University community. 

Professor Freeman will offer the course again in Spring 2012. Additional curricular offerings for the 2011-2012 school year follow below:

Spring 2012 Courses

Freeman

• Environmental Law
• Climate and Energy Law and Policy

Lazarus

• Advanced Environmental Law
• Environmental Law and the Supreme Court

Clinical Seminar

• Environmental Advocacy: Citizen Suits (Taught by: Professor Wendy Jacobs '81 and Lecturer Shaun Goho '01)

Susskind

• Environmental Dispute Resolution (Taught by: Visiting Professor Lawrence Susskind)

Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic grows

The Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic continues to grow under Director Wendy Jacobs '81. Nicole Rinke joined the Clinic in 2011, after serving as General Counsel for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the bi-state congressionally approved agency responsible for the management of Lake Tahoe’s environment. She joins Lecturer on Law Shaun A. Goho '81as a clinical instructor and staff attorney.

Under Jacobs, Goho, and Rinke’s supervision, clinical students will address a plethora of legal issues during the 2011-2012 school year, including issues relating to climate change adaptation and renewable energy provision.

Learn more

Visit the Clinic website for complete details about projects on:

• Municipal climate change adaptation
• Industrial aguaculture
• Hydraulic fracturing
• NSPS Petition
• Mining regulation litigation
• Solar photovoltaic litigation