Celebrating 50 Years of Environmental Law at the American University Washington College of Law

Dear friend—

 

There’s a lot to love about AUWCL’s Program on Environmental and Energy Law, or PEEL. We’ve had different names over the years, but we’ve been training top-notch environmental lawyers since the 70s, and our Environmental Law Society has been organizing symposia, river cleanups, hikes, and other programs since 1978. PEEL now supports three additional student groups: the Animal and Energy Law Societies and the Sustainable Development Law and Policy Brief. On this Giving Day 2020, show your support for PEEL and for our increasingly critical work: training the next generation of thought-leaders to identify equitable solutions to pressing environmental challenges.

 

AUWCL is not new to this work. Upon the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act, AUWCL offered a course entitled, “Law and Man’s Environment” in 1970 that unpacked the statute's purpose in the context of the law. In 1990, AUWCL assumed a leadership role in international environmental law, when Professors Durwood Zaelke and David Hunter formalized an AUWCL partnership with the Center for International Environmental Law, announced the International Environmental Law LL.M. Specialization, and established the Program on International Comparative Environmental Law (PICEL).

 

Under Professor Hunter’s leadership, PICEL became an innovator in international environmental legal education, enabling AUWCL to offer more comparative and international law courses than any other school in the country at the time. PICEL prepared its graduates to strengthen global environmental standards at international financial institutions and to improve the effectiveness of international climate and biodiversity treaties. Despite PICEL’s international focus, the Program also emphasized a practical and contemporary approach to domestic environmental and energy law; hundreds of former PICEL students now work on environmental or energy issues at federal and state agencies, advocacy organizations, trade associations, and private firms—not to mention a sustainable grocery store in Dupont Circle (go shop there now!) and a cidery (go visit next weekend)!

 

In 2018, Professor Amanda Leiter stepped in to direct PICEL, now renamed the Program on Environmental and Energy Law (PEEL) to reflect its expanding focus. In its new configuration, PEEL serves as a home for students interested in all aspects of environmental law as well as animal law and energy law. Like PICEL before it, PEEL provides students with the opportunity to engage with animal, environmental, and energy law through classes, research and writing opportunities, speaker series, international conferences, and externships in Washington, D.C. and around the world. Additionally, PEEL strives to provide an education that is interdisciplinary and inclusive, in which lessons foster passion for the environment and cultivate legal excellence, cultural competency, and global awareness.

 

In the last two years, PEEL has organized and co-hosted 45 programs that have welcomed to campus over 180 animal, energy, and environmental law and policy speakers to address topics ranging from the intersection of clean energy and climate justice to sustainable cosmetics. In turn, these engaging speakers have collectively drawn over 1,200 audience members from the animal, energy, and environmental law and policy sectors.

 

Importantly, PEEL has also begun collaborating with the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) to create a space for the environmental and climate justice movements to work together to address environmental threats to communities of color and low-income communities. Together, PEEL and ELI host events that convene experts in community lawyering, environmental justice policy, and climate justice policy, to equip attorneys and community groups with advocacy and legal tools to ensure that marginalized communities in the United States have access to a healthy environment, even in the face of harmful climate impacts.

 

Each year, 75 to 100 new students come to AUWCL expressing an interest in animal, energy, or environmental law. Our student-centered approach and diverse and welcoming community ensure that each of these students quickly finds a home on campus. PEEL faculty, staff, adjuncts, and alumni are easily accessible as mentors, to equip and inspire the next generation of animal, environmental, and energy lawyers.

 

In recognition of 50 years of environmental law at WCL, we are launching a year-long fundraising effort. The money we raise will: (1) provide scholarship support to students interested in the public interest practice of animal, energy, or environmental law; (2) enable us to develop innovative new programming to attract a broader and more inclusive cohort of students to our program; and (3) allow WCL to continue its leadership role in animal, environmental, and energy law education.

 

Help us help our students create a vibrant legal community where future lawyers can challenge and inspire each other to pursue their dreams. Please consider investing in the future of PEEL by making a donation this year! Note that our focus is not on the amount of each donation, but on engaging as many alumni and friends of WCL as possible. That’s why our 2020 goal is to attract at least 100 gifts of $10 or more. Your professors are giving to show our support; join us!

 

Give any amount here!

 

Warmly,

Professors David Hunter, Amanda Leiter, and Bill Snape, and Program Coordinator Ingrid Lesemann