{"image":"","content":"<h1>Environmental Law and Sustainability Center<\/h1>\r\n<h4>The Environmental Law and Sustainability Center takes on some of the most complex and critical issues our society faces today. The Center is known nationally and internationally for its scholarship and advocacy on sustainable development and climate change. It is led by <a href=\"ipl:\/\/35\/\/WyIxMSJd\">Professor John Dernbach<\/a>, a scholar whose record of publication and influence rank him as a national leader in his field.<\/h4>\r\n<h5>Areas of Focus<\/h5>\r\n<p>The Environmental Law and Sustainability Center explores the ways that the law can be used to address challenges including climate change, environmental rights, public &nbsp;health, biodiversity, and the protection of the land, air, and water for future generations.<\/p>\r\n<p>Experiential learning and public engagement are at the core of its activities. &nbsp;The Center creates opportunities to engage our students and the faculty in the practical problems faced by government and the practicing bar. &nbsp;It proposes, advocates, and evaluates the effectiveness of laws relating to the environment, energy, and climate change, and helps public and private decision makers solve legal problems concerning these subjects. &nbsp;The Center helps prospective and current students engage in environmental law while they are at Widener, through clinics, coursework, externships, and other activities. &nbsp;It also helps students prepare for careers in environmental law, climate change and energy opportunities that will become more numerous and challenging in the years ahead.<\/p>\r\n<p>The Center&rsquo;s credo is &ldquo;Law for Sustainability.&rdquo; &nbsp;The Center attempts to answer&ndash;through scholarship, teaching, applied research, special projects, and other programs&ndash;the question of how law can and should be used to achieve sustainability. &nbsp;The urgency of the task before us requires this kind of engaged effort: &nbsp;providing information, tools, skills, and ideas that policy makers, practicing lawyers, law students, and future lawyers can use to address the challenges and opportunities of sustainability.<\/p>\r\n<p>Sustainable development provides a framework for humans to live and prosper in harmony with nature rather than at nature&rsquo;s expense. &nbsp;Nonetheless, sustainability does not now have an adequate or supportive legal foundation, in spite of the many environmental and natural resources laws that exist. &nbsp;If we are to make significant progress toward a sustainable society, much less achieve sustainability, we need to develop and implement new or modified laws and legal institutions. &nbsp;Government, business, and nongovernmental organizations increasingly demand legal work that addresses sustainable development issues.<\/p>\r\n<h5>Programs<\/h5>\r\n<p>The Center offers students the opportunity to complete the <a href=\"ipl:\/\/397\/\/W10=\">Environmental Law Certificate<\/a>, an ideal credential for those interested in pursuing environmentally focused legal careers.<\/p>\r\n<p>In addition, the Center sponsors a distinguished speaker series, environmentally focused externships, moot court experiences, and the Environmental Law and Policy Society as well as many forms of public service. &nbsp;These include white papers and articles coauthored with students, draft sustainability ordinances prepared by students for local governments, blogs, student preparation of a newsletter for the Pennsylvania environmental and energy bar, student externships, student preparation of a website describing the sustainability positions of political candidates, and conferences on cutting-edge issues.<\/p>\r\n<h5>Leadership<\/h5>\r\n<p>The Center combines understanding and experience of how environmental law works at a variety of geographic scales. &nbsp;Professor John Dernbach, director of the Environmental Law and Sustainability Center, leads the only national project that assesses U.S. sustainable development efforts and makes recommendations for future activities. &nbsp;The project involves approximately 50 experts from a variety of sustainability disciplines and has produced three books since 2002, all published by the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C. &nbsp;He also works with practicing lawyers on sustainability through, among other things, his membership on the American Bar Association Task Force on Sustainability. &nbsp;His work on sustainable development, climate change, and environmental law is known throughout the world. &nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>Scholar-in-residence Donald Brown has an international reputation on the application of ethical considerations to climate change law and policy. &nbsp;He is currently conducting a research project with the University of Auckland in New Zealand on the extent to which some two dozen countries are using ethical considerations in developing and implementing their climate policies. &nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>The Center&rsquo;s work also includes teaching by other respected full-time and part-time professors such as Don Brown, who teaches international human rights and international environmental law; George Bibikos, who teaches and practices oil and gas law; and Bruce Warshawsky, who teaches and practices land use planning. &nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>Both Brown and Dernbach worked for many years at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources\/Department of Environmental Protection, and have extensive experience drafting, implementing, and litigating environmental laws. &nbsp;No other law school has this combination of sustainability and climate change experience. &nbsp;More generally, Widener Law Commonwealth&rsquo;s location in the capital of the nation&rsquo;s sixth most populous state makes it an influential place for the development and implementation of environmental laws and policies. &nbsp;<\/p>","box_content":"<p><a href=\"ipl:\/\/397\/\/W10=\">Learn more about the Environmental Law Certificate Program.<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"ipl:\/\/35\/\/WyIxMSJd\">Meet Professor John Dernbach, director of the Environmental Law and Sustainability Center.<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p>Upcoming Programs and Events <strong>&lt;UPDATE LINK<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>News <strong>&lt;UPDATE LINK<\/strong><\/p>"}