Environmental Law Center

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Overview

Environmental challenges have never been more pressing or more complex. But at Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Law Center, a new generation of leaders is rising to meet them.

The Environmental Law Center (ELC) oversees the most comprehensive graduate environmental law program in the country. Consistently ranked among the nation’s best by U.S. News & World Report, our environmental law program includes five legal clinics, six centers and institutes, 67 environmental law courses, and 76 environmental faculty. We prepare students to work on the frontlines of environmental advocacy, energy and climate justice, animal law and protection, as well as the sustainable food movement. We develop leaders who can work with environmental and public policy issues within the framework of the legal system and are prepared to meet the environmental challenges of the 21st century.

Curriculum

Vermont Law School offers JD students the option to add a concentration to their degree. Environmental law students may pursue specialized concentrations in Animal Law, Climate Law, Energy Law, Food and Agriculture Law, Land Use Law, and Water Resources Law. Concentrations are a tangible indication demonstrating to prospective employers that students have mastered a specific subject matter area.

For more information on required courses, visit the concentration pages listed below.

Concentration in Animal Law

Concentration in Climate Law

Concentration in Energy Law

Concentration in Food and Agricultural Law

Environmental Law Center Statistics

The Environmental Law Center hosts the nation’s premier environmental law program.

ENVIRONMENTAL FACULTY

76 Total Faculty

20 Regular Faculty

29 Summer Session Adjuncts

20 Online-only Adjuncts

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY COURSES

60+ Total Courses

26 Summer Session-only Courses

7 Environmental Field Courses

9 Animal Protection Courses

8 Climate Courses

9 Energy Regulation Courses

9 Environmental Justice and Public Health Courses

12 Food and Agriculture Courses

10 International Environmental Courses

11 Natural Resources Courses

6 Sustainability and Business Courses

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGREES AND PROGRAMS

6 Clinics

7 Centers and Programs

5 Environmental Master’s Degrees

1 Environmental Executive Master’s Degree

3 Environmental LLM Degrees

FIRST IN NATION FOR

Environmental Justice Course

Animal Rights Law Course

Environmental Tax Policy Course

ABA Acquiesced Masters Degree For Non-Lawyers

Summer at the Environmental Law Center

Environmental Law Center Summer

The Environmental Law Center assembles an exciting group of scholars, students, and distinguished visitors to study environmental law and policy during the most glorious time of year in northern New England.

In addition to Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) students, our Summer Session is open to students from other schools and lifelong learners. We welcome students enrolled at other law schools and graduate institutions nationally and internationally, practicing attorneys, planners, state and federal agency personnel, upper-level undergraduate students (with the director’s permission), teachers, journalists, citizen advocates, and more.

Courses are taught by faculty from VLGS and other schools, international law scholars, leaders of non-profit advocacy groups, and private practitioners. Whether a student is interested in a specific area of study—such as energy law, international environmental law, water law, land use law, animal law, or agricultural law—or wishes to pursue a multidisciplinary approach, the summer program offers a wide array of options.

To read course descriptions, please see the course catalog linked below

Summer Course Catalog

Browse our list of nearly 30 environmental law summer courses and meet summer faculty.

View the Catalog

Plan Your Summer

Located on the banks of the scenic White River in South Royalton, Vermont Law and Graduate School (VLGS) is an ideal location for students to both study and play in summertime.

Hiking, swimming, tubing, biking, and cookouts are just some of the many outdoor activities students enjoy while not in class. Students also take time to sample fine dining, arts, entertainment, and other cultural attractions available near the campus and in nearby cities and towns such as Montpelier, Burlington, Woodstock, and Hanover, NH. Students not only have an opportunity to relax and form lasting connections with one another, but also mingle with the expert lecturers who come to campus each summer. Local summer housing is available on campus and in the surrounding towns.

If you have questions about the VLGS Summer Session, please contact Courtney Collins, Assistant Director of the Environmental Law Center, at ccollins@vermontlaw.edu.

Application and Registration

Vermont Law and Graduate School students (including Masters, JD/Masters, and LLM degree students) need not apply to enroll in the summer session, but instead will register for courses starting in early April by following instructions distributed by the Registrar’s Office. Non-VLGS students, including auditors, should apply to the summer session using our online form (available in early March).

Who is eligible?

These are graduate level courses; normally, only those with undergraduate degrees will be considered for registration. However, undergraduate students may enroll with the director’s permission. Law and graduate students currently enrolled at other institutions are eligible. Credits transfer at the discretion of the receiving school. Check with your institution if they will accept transfer credits from VLGS. Class registration is subject to approval and capacity limits.

Non-Degree Students or Transfer Credit

APPLICATION: If you are interested in taking classes as a non-degree student or to transfer credits to your home institution, apply here starting in early March.
Once your application has been submitted and approved, you will receive an email confirming setup of a personal VLGS account and providing instructions on how to access this account. You may then register for classes starting in May.

Degree-Seeking Students

VLGS students (including Masters, summer-only Masters, JD/Masters, and LLM degree students) need not apply to enroll in the summer session, but instead can register for courses starting in early April, following instructions distributed by the Registrar’s Office. If you are interested in a Master’s or LLM degree program or if you wish to combine one with your JD degree, please apply here.
Once your application is reviewed, you will receive more information on the steps to enroll. For more information about registration, tuition, refunds, and financial aid, refer to the summer course catalog.

Degree Information

Please note that Summer Session registration is not an application to the LLM degree programs. The links below provide information for those seeking admittance to the degree programs, including the summers-only master’s degree option.

Degree Programs

Online Degrees

Summer Resources

Looking for a place to stay? Recreational Activities? Transportation? Check out the following helpful links.

About Vermont

Housing

Map of Area Attractions

Campus Map and Directions

Summer Scholars

Vermont Law and Graduate School invites leaders in the fields of environmental, energy, agriculture, animal advocacy, and international environmental law and journalism to serve as Distinguished Summer Scholars and Media Fellows in residency during the VLGS Summer Session. Each visiting scholar or fellow delivers a public lecture, participates in informal social events on campus, and is available to meet with students and faculty individually. These distinguished visitors are a significant intellectual resource for our summer students and also offer valuable networking opportunities.

Hot Topics Summer Lecture Series

Each summer the Environmental Law Center hosts the Hot Topics in Environmental Law lecture series. On Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon, VLGS faculty and invited experts host lectures on a variety of current issues in environmental law and policy. Vermont Bar Association Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit is available.

Lectures are free and open to the public. Access recordings of past events below.

2021 Video Archive

2020 Video Archive

Hothouse Earth Podcast

ELC faculty and staff are joined by experts in environmental law to provide concise, accessible conversation on the most pressing issues of our time.

Listen Here

Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship

Since 2009, Vermont Law and Graduate School has hosted an annual Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship. Colloquium participants are environmental law faculty in the U.S. and abroad. This event offers environmental law scholars the opportunity to present their works-in-progress, to get feedback from their colleagues, and to meet and interact with those who are also teaching and researching in areas related to environmental and natural resources law, or any related specialty areas.

Emerging Environmental Law Curriculum Conference

Environmental law professors assemble regularly to discuss scholarship, but there are fewer opportunities to gather with our peers from other schools to grow our skills as teachers. Join Vermont Law & Graduate School’s Environmental Law Center and colleagues from across the country for a conference designed for passionate environmental law faculty dedicated to providing future environmental leaders with cutting edge legal education.

This June 2024 conference builds on the first Emerging Environmental Law Curriculum Conference in 2019 and the subsequent 2021 curriculum roundtable series (transcripts and analysis published in Vermont Law Review, Vol. 46: Book 4). We aim to reconvene the curriculum conference every five years to share updated learnings and techniques for teaching emerging environmental law.

This conference will expand on the issues explored in our earlier gatherings as well as dive into new discussions of innovation in and out of the classroom. The conference will feature faculty panelists from law schools around the U.S.

Parenteau Climate Action Fellowship

The Environmental Law Center and Environmental Advocacy Clinic invite applications from recent or upcoming law graduates to serve as a one-year Climate Action Fellow to begin in August 2025. The position combines an opportunity to conduct academic, legal, and/or policy research on climate law with responsibilities to work with student clinicians in the Environmental Advocacy Clinic on cutting-edge climate litigation and advocacy. The Climate Action Fellowship offers a strong starting point for an academic career in doctrinal or clinical environmental law teaching, and for other opportunities in public-interest climate policy and advocacy. The position honors the climate law leadership of Professor of Law Emeritus and Senior Fellow for Climate Policy Patrick Parenteau.

Apply here.

People

Faculty

Eduardo Otero Bakai