For Immediate Release: May 15, 2012

ELI Announces Winner of Seventh Annual Constitutional Environmental Law Student Writing Competition

(Washington, DC) — Melissa Waver, a second-year student at Suffolk University Law School, has been named winner of the seventh annual ELI-ABA-NAELS Constitutional Environmental Law Student Writing Competition. Ms. Waver will receive a $2000 cash award and publication in the Environmental Law Reporter (ELR), ELI’s flagship journal and the most often cited law review covering environmental and natural resource issues.

Ms. Waver’s entry, “When the Standing Doctrine Closes a Door, May Intervention Open a Window? How Article III Standing and Rule 24(a) Intervention Could Shape Climate Change Solutions,” examines how a flexible application of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a) governing third-party intervention could promote more effective implementation of climate change policy. “This thoughtful article proposes an interpretation of intervention requirements that would enable citizens and citizen organizations to participate in ongoing climate change litigation,” said ELI Senior Attorney Jay Austin.

Lewis Bollard, a second-year student at Yale Law School, was named as a competition finalist. His entry, “Ag-Gag: The Unconstitutionality of Laws Restricting Undercover Investigations on Farms,” will also be published in the Environmental Law Reporter.

The annual competition—co-sponsored by ELI’s Endangered Environmental Laws Program, the Constitutional Law Committee of the American Bar Association’s 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 were subject to a rigorous evaluation process overseen by judges from ELI, ABA, and NAELS. The selected articles will be published in ELR® News & Analysis in the fall of 2012.

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