ENVIRONMENTAL LAW

Conferences

Former Vice President Al Gore gave the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law address at the 2007 NAELS Conference at GW

Each year, the Law School hosts the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Conference. The Conference serves as an important national forum, bringing together leading scholars and practitioners to address cutting-edge topics in the field, and investigating public policy solutions to environmental challenges.

Since its inception, the Conference has closely examined and sought new legal solutions to several key environmental issues including global warming, the impact of international trade and trade agreements on the environment, environmental dispute resolution, biotechnology and the human environment, Smart Growth, and legal issues related to emerging hydrogen technologies. 

The tradition of in-depth legal examination of critical environmental issues will continue with programs on nanotechnology governance, the role of adaptive management at EPA, a retrospective look at the development of environmental law over the past 40 years and an evaluation of the National Environmental Policy Act under development.

GW’s location in Washington allows it to attract major political and legal thought leaders to its campus.  For example, the 2007 National Association of Environmental Law Societies annual conference hosted by GW featured former Vice-President Al Gore who presented the slide show that was the basis for the movie An Inconvenient Truth.  He followed the presentation with a nearly hour-long question and answer session with the students in the audience.  Read more about the NAELS Conference, "The Future of Environmental Protection."