For Immediate Release: May 12, 2008

ELI Announces Winner of Third Annual “Endangered Environmental Laws” Student Writing Competition

(Washington, DC) — Jeremy Lawrence, a rising third-year student at the University of Southern California Law School, was named the winner of the third annual ELI-ABA-NAELS “Endangered Environmental Laws” Student Writing Competition. Jeremy will receive a $2000 cash award and an offer of publication in the Environmental Law Reporter®, ELI’s flagship journal and the only attorney-edited law review covering environmental and natural resource issues.

Mr. Lawrence’s winning entry, “Where Federalism and Globalization Intersect: The Western Climate Initiative as a Model for Cross-Border Collaboration between States and Provinces,” explores the practical and constitutional implications of the regional effort by various Western states and Canadian provinces to combat global warming.

“This article offers a timely exploration of how innovative state efforts like the Western Climate Initiative are likely to hold up to constitutional scrutiny,” said ELI President Leslie Carothers. “The submissions authored by Mr. Lawrence and the other student authors who participated in our annual competition are evidence that the next generation of environmental lawyers is already thinking about the legal challenges that confront the modern framework for environmental protection.”

The annual competition, co-sponsored by ELI’s Endangered Environmental Laws Program, the Constitutional Law Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, and the National Association of Environmental Law Societies, invites law students to analyze issues at the intersection of constitutional and environmental law. All entries received during the 2007-08 academic year were subject to a rigorous evaluation process overseen by judges from ELI, ABA, and NAELS. The article will not be available to the public until its expected fall 2008 publication in ELI’s Environmental Law Reporter® (ELR).

ELI’s Endangered Environmental Laws Program seeks to defend U.S. environmental law by advancing principles such as broad access to federal courts, uniform minimum federal environmental standards, and leeway for state innovation in environmental protection. For more information, see http://www.endangeredlaws.org.

The Environmental Law Institute® is an independent, non-profit research and educational organization based in Washington, DC. The Institute serves the environmental profession in business, government, the private bar, public interest organizations, academia, and the press. For further information from the Environmental Law Institute, please contact Brett Kitchen at 202-939-3833 or pressrequest@eli.org.
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