EVENTS
February
Events at WCL and AU
Wednesday-Thursday, February 8-9, 2012
ELS-BLSA Joint Hill & Government Days for Environmental Justice
WCL's Environmental Law Society is joining with WCL's Black Law Student Association, and its national affilitate, NBLSA, to work to raise awareness of issues surrounding environmental justice on Capitol Hill. You can register online at www.nblsa.org/hillandgovdaysregistration/. Please include that you are from WCL in the comments section, and select MABLSA (Mid-Atlantic Black Law Students Association) in the "Affiliation" tab. There will be training workshops on February 8, and materials will be provided on the day when we will meet in groups with Congress members and their staff.
Kangaroo Courts: How Corporations Use International Arbitration to Threaten Water, Health, Human Rights, and Democracy - Chevron v. Ecuador and Pacific Rim Mining Corp. v. El Salvador
Thursday, February 9, 2012 from 7-9pm
AU School of International Service Atrium
After 18 years of litigation in two countries, 30,000 indigenous peoples and farmers in the Ecuadorian Amazon actually won a historic $18 billion in damages from Chevron for contaminating their land and drinking water. But now Chevron is using its vast resources and political influence to get an international investment tribunal of three private sector lawyers to try to overrule the court systems of Ecuador and the U.S. whose decisions Chevron does not like. On February 11 and 12, this international tribunal of three lawyers will meet in Washington to decide this “investor-state case”. The panelist chosen by Chevron is the Director of the Center on International Commercial Arbitration at AU’s Washington College of Law. A ruling in another controversial international investment arbitration case brought by Pacific Rim Mining Corp. against the government of El Salvador for enforcing its environmental laws and protecting its limited water supply will also be released in coming days.
Come learn from experts and affected communities about these shocking cases and these little known tribunals that threaten our justice systems, while greatly expanding the power of wealthy multinational corporations.
Panelists will include:
Humberto Piaguaje, Official Spokesperson from the Secoya Indigenous Organization of Ecuador in the Chevron case and Sub-Coordinator for the Assembly of People Affected by ChevronTexaco
Lori Wallach, Director, Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch Division
Aaron Page, Attorney for Ecuadorian Plaintiffs
Eve Bratman, Assistant Professor, School of International Service, American University (moderator)
Environmental Law Career Panel
Monday, February 13, 2012 from 12-1 pm
Room 402
Join WCL's Environmental Law Society and the Office of Career and Professional Development for a discussion of careers in the environmental law field. This event will give law students the opportunity to learn from attorneys who practice environmental or related law in the government, non-profit, and private sectors. Attorneys will share with students how they have developed their career in environmental law, as well as what students should know and do to get internships and jobs in the environmental law field. A Q&A session will follow attorneys' presentations. This event will also provide a chance for attorneys and students to discuss future employment possibilities with hiring organizations.
Panelists will include:
Moderator: Professor Amanda Leiter
Stacy Coleman, Associate Attorney, Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Environmental Enforcement Section
Carroll Muffett, President and CEO, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
Daniel Squire, Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP
Stacy VanBelleghem, Associate, Latham & Watkins LLP
Mike Walker, Director, National Enforcement Training Institute, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance
Pizza will be served! Make sure to RSVP through WCL CareerLink!
March
Events Outside of WCL
March 1, 2012
ABA Energy Law Student Writing Competition
Any student enrolled in an accredited law school in the United States during 2011-2012 is eligible to submit an entry on issues addressing:
Are past legal constructions for the development of other resources effective prologues, or should alternative energy deployment (including renewables) or climate change issues be addressed through sui generis rules?
Submission Information:
Submissions must be through email to Noemi.Alvarez@americanbar.org by 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time on March 1, 2012. Submissions must not exceed 2,000 words in length (a maximum of approximately 8 pages), double-spaced, 12-point font, and using Bluebook law review format for citations. Each page must have a header including the title of the paper and a page number. For anonymous evaluation of the entries, no information that could identify the author should appear anywhere in the body of the paper, including the header. Each entry must have a separate cover sheet (not included in the 2,000 word limit) that includes the following contact information: (1) name; (2) address; (3) phone number; (4) email address; (5) law school; and (6) paper title. Any relevant article or essay may be submitted for the competition, including writing submitted for academic credit. Papers that have been previously published are not eligible for the competition. A paper must be the original work of the individual student submitting the entry.
Judging:
Papers will be subject to a blind review process. The panel of judges will judge the papers anonymously, without knowledge of the author's name or law school. Papers will be evaluated by the following criteria: (1) originality and thoughtfulness; (2) writing quality; (3) analysis and legal reasoning; (4) quality and use of research (including interdisciplinary and applied examples); and (5) compliance with the competition rules. Winning entries will be published nationwide in an ABA publication, a special combined edition newsletter of the Renewable, Alternative, and Distributed Energy Resources Committee and the Energy and Environmental Markets and Finance Committee in June 2012.
Winning Entries will be announced and winners notified no later than May 2012.
Questions or changes of contact information should be sent by email to Noemi Alvarez, Section Assistant, at Noemi.Alvarez@americanbar.org or (312) 988-5625.
Thursday & Friday, March 22-23, 2012
The Clean Water Act at 40: The J.B. & Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Symposium
The George Washington University Law School
A co-sponsored symposium on the impacts and successes of the Clean Water Act. Co-sponsored by the George Washington University Law School, the Environmental Law Institute, the Center for Progressive Reform, the Association of Clean Water Administrators, the Clean Water America Alliance, the GW Journal of Energy and Environmental Law, and the GW Environmental Law Association.
Registration: To register for this event, please complete the registration form before March 15.
FUTURE
Environmental Law Institute
Seventh Annual Constitutional Environmental Law Student Writing Competition (2011-2012)
The U.S. Constitution has long been interpreted by the courts and understood by most Americans to support comprehensive environmental protections. However, arguments questioning the constitutional legitimacy of environmental law have continued to gain traction in the federal courts. In response to this trend, ELI, ABA SEER’s Constitutional Law Committee, and NAELS invite law students to submit papers exploring current issues of constitutional environmental law.
Award: $2000 cash prize, an offer of publication in the Environmental Law Reporter, and a one-year individual membership to ELI.
Topic: Any topic addressing recent developments or trends in U.S. environmental law that have a significant constitutional or “federalism” component. (See sample topics below.)
Eligibility: Students currently enrolled in law school (in the U.S. or abroad) are eligible, including students who will graduate in the spring or summer of 2012. Any relevant article, case comment, note, or essay may be submitted, including writing submitted for academic credit. Jointly authored pieces are eligible only if all authors are students and consent to submit. Previously published pieces, or pieces that are already slated for publication, are ineligible.
Deadline: Entries must be received no later than 5:00 PM ET on Friday, April 13, 2012. Email entries (and any questions) to Cory Connolly at connolly@eli.org. You will receive a confirmation by email.
For more details visit: http://www.eli.org/writing_contest.cfm
