New DePaul Environmental Law Course

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!