2011 Environmental Law Brochure
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2012 Environmental Law Newsletter
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The Tulane environmental law curriculum ranges from theoretical and statutory courses to live client practice in the environmental law clinic, where students take legal action on behalf of their clients to protect public health and natural resources. Tulane offers a Certificate of Specialization in Environmental Law for JD students and the LLM in Energy & Environment for graduate students. In addition, students find at Tulane a strong international environmental law curriculum; the high-quality student-published Tulane Environmental Law Journal; an active, student-run Environmental Law Society; the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic and an environmental think-tank, the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law & Policy.
Tulane's Public Interest Law Foundation funds summer grants for students working in public interest positions, many in environmental law. And Tulane's alumni network of graduates working in environmental positions is impressive. Four full-time faculty members teach in Tulane's environmental program.
As a leader in environmental legal education since 1979, Tulane is one of a relatively small number of national law schools offering an environmental law concentration at the JD level and a master's program combining environmental and energy law. Tulane also offers the largest faculty-supervised environmental law clinical program in the country, teaching students not just the theory but also the practice and advocacy skills necessary to address environmental issues.
The curriculum is based on foundation courses in pollution control, natural resources law, and administrative law. Beyond these basics, advanced offerings include the law of hazardous and solid wastes, land use regulation, international environmental issues and accords, environmental justice, toxic torts, energy law, wetlands and coastal management, wildlife and endangered species protection, and historic preservation and urban issues. Most valued by graduates are the opportunities in many courses to get out into the field and see the conflicting interests at work.
The Certificate of Specialization in Environmental Law provides a coherent foundation that prepares students for the legal problems they will confront in practice, whether on behalf of government agencies, industrial clients, private litigants, or public interest groups. The certificate requires 15 credit hours, including two foundation courses: Pollution Control (fundamentals of air, water, and waste regulation); Natural Resources (management of public and private resources); or Administrative Law (principles from which public environmental law derives); and two other courses selected from the diverse environmental and energy law curriculum. An average of 40 students in each graduating class have received the Certificate of Specialization in Environmental Law.
Environmental Law Resources