Hello
Everyone!
Like
many Chicagoans the DePaul College of Law Environmental Law Society hunkered
down for the winter. As our weather
moves from bitter cold to snow accumulation we hope you will excuse our lack of
blog posts! However, I am here to break
the silence and update our followers about what we have been doing while in
winter hibernation. Specifically, I will
explain DePaul’s newest course offering International Environmental Justice and
how ELS helped to make it a reality.
Last
year, ELS determined that our school’s curriculum lacked environmental law
course offerings. As a group of students
concerned about environmental issues, we took it upon ourselves to provide our
input to our school’s administrators and faculty. Our administration was encouraged by our
initiative and asked us to take on a larger role in determining what would be
the best way to get another class. From
there, we obtained a commitment by a professor to add an additional course to
his teaching load and began to have meetings on what subject matter would be
the best fit. The result was
International Environmental Justice. The
course description reads as follows:
"This course focuses on
legal problems and issues concerning the human right to a safe, healthy and
ecologically-balanced environment. The readings and class discussion
focus on (1) how private lawyers can effectively advocate on behalf of
indigenous populations who suffer environmental injuries, and (2) how
international legal regimes operate to prevent and redress violations of
international environmental human rights.”
Although
we are only four short weeks into the semester, our class is already beginning
to take shape. We have started by
learning about the legal framework and the institutions (both national and
international) by which environmental issues are addressed. Apart from learning about international
treaties and reading European Court decisions, our professor has challenged us
to come to each class with a fictional “client.” These fictional clients are then used to put
conceptual ideas such as “displacing indigenous populations” into real world
scenarios. For example, just this week
discussion of our client’s issues led to a discussion of the legal issues of
environmental degradation through real property development and the ensuing
procedural issues presented by local, regional and national governments.
ELS
would like to thank Professor Barry Kellman for volunteering to add an
additional course to his already busy workload and to DePaul’s administration
for allowing us to voice our opinions about what we want out of law school and to
help make them a reality!