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VLS Professor Advocates Radical Steps in Response to Gulf Oil Spill

Vermont Law School — 23 Jul 2010 04:00:00 EST

Professor Pat Parenteau discussed the Gulf oil spill during a Hot Topics lecture on July 22, 2010.

Pat Parenteau is fed up.

One of the leading environmental scholars in the United States, Parenteau said America's environmental laws have proven miserably ineffective at preventing catastrophes such as the Gulf oil spill.

At a Hot Topics panel discussion July 22 on the Gulf spill, the Vermont Law School professor called for radical steps to end America's dependence on oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen the risk of future fossil fuel-related disasters. He demanded passage of a federal tax that would raise gas prices to $5 a gallon to encourage Americans to forego their cars for walking, bicycling and public transportation.

"We don't need to close loopholes in federal laws," Parenteau said. "I'm not for small tweaks anymore. That's rearranging the deck chairs" on the Titanic. "We need to stop using oil. I've been doing this for 38 years. I've seen it. I'm tired of it."

Parenteau was joined on the panel by Professor Lee Breckenridge of Northeastern University School of Law and Boston Globe environmental reporter Beth Daley.

The Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig working on a well for the oil company BP a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, exploded April 20, leading to the largest oil spill in U.S. history. BP capped the leaking well, at least temporarily, on July 15, but it is expected to take years for the gulf's environment and economy to recover.

Daley said BP and federal government officials hindered media coverage of the spill by ignoring requests for information or providing incomplete information.

Breckenridge asked why the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Oil Pollution Act and other federal laws designed to prevent such disasters had failed. "Why wasn't the basic analysis done before the project was approved," she said. "Why weren't these laws enough to cause the necessary scrutiny?"

She also discussed inappropriate ties between government regulators and the oil industry. But she also questioned why environmental groups hadn't pressured government regulators to do their jobs.

Parenteau, an expert in climate change and ocean resources, said the Gulf's fragile ecology may never recover from the estimated 40 millions gallons of oil that have leaked so far. "And this is the deepest spill by far, so we literally have no idea what we've done to the Gulf ecosystem," he said. "The damage is just incalculable."

More than 40 years after America's major environmental laws were adopted, Parenteau said it's time to accept that those laws have failed. "I don't care what law we pass, we're way outside the bounds of what laws can do to manage this issue," he said. "It's time, once and for all, to stop this - to get off this oil addiction."

Breckenridge disagreed, saying she still believes legislators, regulators and the public can push through laws that reduce the risk of catastrophes such as the Gulf oil spill.

EPA Minority Fellows Kick Off Environmental Law Outreach Program at VLS

Vermont Law School — 07 Jul 2010 04:00:00 EST

Five North Carolina Central University Law School students attended VLS's 2010 Summer Session to kick off the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to increase outreach to minority and underserved communities.

When they enrolled at North Carolina Central University Law School, Ilesanmi Adaramola, Chimezie Okobi, Jennifer Perez, Justin Anderson and Wendell Fortson didn't have a particular interest in the environment.

They do now.

In June, the five 3L students from historically black NCCU arrived at Vermont Law School to attend VLS's 2010 Summer Session, which formally kicked off the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to increase outreach to minority and underserved communities.

VLS and the EPA signed a memorandum of understanding last year to improve the flow of information between the EPA and minority communities and further the teaching of environmental issues at VLS. The MOU is part of the EPA's first organized effort to train more lawyers to handle environmental justice issues in minority and low-income communities, which bear a disproportionate amount of health and environmental impacts from pollution.

In addition to the EPA summer fellowships at VLS, Vermont Law School will employ distance learning technology to give a wider range of students from minority academic institutions access to its environmental law program. The NCCU students also are looking to VLS for advice in starting an environmental law society and adopting green practices on their campus, such as recycling.

The NCCU students said their summer experience at VLS, the top-ranked environmental law school in the nation, made them realize how much environmental issues affect a community's quality of life.
And being able to handle environmental cases as a lawyer will further NCCU's mission of public service, they said.

"Coming to Vermont Law School has been a great experience and a whirlwind of good opportunities to meet people and learn about critical issues," Perez said.

VLS Dean Jeff Shields said Vermont Law School and the EPA are devoted to developing environmental leaders within the country's minority communities. He said the program would help to end the disproportionate environmental, health and economic burdens on underserved communities.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said new leaders must be invited into the environmental movement.

"The actions behind this MOU will allow EPA to give a voice to communities that haven't had a voice in the past and empower them to act on our nation's most pressing environmental issues," she said. "Fostering more diversity and inclusion throughout EPA will allow us to better serve the broad environmental and health needs of all Americans."

The EPA program is being coordinated by VLS alumnus Helena Wooden-Aguilar ‘02, senior case manager for the EPA's civil rights office in North Carolina. She works with historically black colleges, universities and law schools to enhance or develop their environmental law curricula. Shirley Jefferson, VLS associate dean for Student Affairs and Diversity, welcomed Wooden-Aguilar's efforts. Jefferson said environmental injustice is a major problem in many minority and low-income communities, where black lawyers typically focus on discrimination, civil rights, crime and other issues.

"Addressing environmental injustices should have started a long time ago, but more and more African-Americans are learning about the environment and how pollution directly affects their lives," she said. "We have to make more black law students interested in environmental law."

Several VLS faculty and administrators, including Jefferson, Professor Mark Latham, Professor Marc Mihaly and Anne Mansfield, associate director of the Environmental Law Center, visited NCCU to talk to students about what VLS has to offer.

Perez, who is a hospital social worker, said she's gaining a greater understanding of how public health issues can be addressed through the rule of law.

Adaramola, a paralegal, said she's become fascinated by the interconnectivity between environmental law and ordinary people's lives, including ways to improve drinking water, land use and other issues.

Okobi said he was drawn to the EPA-VLS program because environmental laws and policies are intertwined with his interest in international business.

"And the students here are very welcoming and passionate about learning," he said.

Anderson, who has a background in sociology, said environmental law is broadening his concept of public service.

"I've talked to so many students here about pollution, invasive species, water quality, agricultural practices and land development," he said. "Everyone's very passionate."

NCCU Professor Kevin Foy, who teaches his school's lone environmental law class, accompanied his students to VLS for the summer session.

Foy, a veteran of the environmental movement and a former mayor of Chapel Hill, N.C., said the depth and breadth of environmental courses at VLS give the NCCU students a unique opportunity, especially when it comes to sustainable land use issues. He said few black lawyers have specialized in the environmental because protecting wildlife and trees is associated with "white privilege," while low-income families typically focus on jobs, education, crime and medical care.

"I think it's also been a sense that you can't do anything about pollution and other forms of environmental injustice, and there's a general lack of awareness of the health problems caused by pollution," he said.

Latham said he got involved in the EPA program because minority communities haven't been fully represented in the environmental arena.

"It's an important voice that hasn't been heard," he said. "I think VLS connecting with this historically black law school is an exciting opportunity to address that problem."

What’s Next for Public Lands in a Climate-Changed World?

Vermont Law School — 25 Jun 2010 04:00:00 EST

With nearly one-third of U.S. soil under federal ownership, it's critical that Americans reconfigure their public and private lands to adapt to rising temperatures, altered habitat and other effects of climate change, a visiting scholar told a Vermont Law School audience on July 24.

"It's going to take adaptive management on steroids to deal with what's ahead," said John Leshy, a professor at University of California's Hastings College of the Law.

Leshy, one of America's leading experts in public lands, held key posts in the U.S. Department of the Interior in the Carter and Clinton administrations and co-chaired the Obama administration transition team for the Interior Department.

He painted a gloomy picture of America's ability to adapt to the changes wrought by global warming, but he's cautiously optimistic it can be done.

Leshy was the latest speaker in the Environmental Law Center's Hot Topics lecture series. Titled "Public Lands in a Climate-Changed World: Some Speculations," his talk centered on one question: What might a destabilized climate mean for policies governing the one-third of the real estate in the country that is owned by the public?

Leshy started with an overview of the conservation movement in the United States, including the seminal role of George Perkins Marsh of Woodstock, Vt. Considered America's first environmentalist, Marsh wrote the 1864 book Man and Nature, which decried the effects of deforestation and other human impacts on the land and water.

Leshy looked back at the Progressive era from 1890 to 1920, lauding the conservation efforts of Marsh, Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot and John Muir to set aside public lands, and the efforts of Franklin Roosevelt to expand protection of public lands in the 1930s and 1940s.

Leshy said the United States must reconfigure its public lands to adapt to climate change, including using adaptive management on private lands and accelerating the pace of public land sales, purchases and trades.

He said public lands must be continually reconfigured to preserve waterways, headwaters, watersheds, migratory bird corridors and other key habitats.

"Federal lands have to migrate to some extent to adapt," he said, including national parks, which were established for scenic rather than restoration purposes.

Such reconfiguration of public lands will take unprecedented cooperation between federal and state agencies and private owners, he said.

Federal agencies also must adjust their traditional management missions - scenery for the National Park Service, timber for the Forest Service and grazing and mining for the Bureau of Land Management - to reflect the new top priority of climate change, Leshy said.

"Where are these lands located, how are they managed, how are they defined?" he said. "Everything needs to be redefined to adapt to climate change. It's a daunting task."

Federal lands have helped to shape America's identity, and past crises - environmental and economic - have prompted great leaps in conservation around 1900 and the 1930s, he said.

"I'm still optimistic, but the scale of climate change is bigger than anything we've faced," he said. "We have no time to waste."

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Effort to Remake Property Rights Law

Vermont Law School — 18 Jun 2010 04:00:00 EST

BY JOHN ECHEVERRIA, PROFESSOR OF LAW, VERMONT LAW SCHOOL

If further proof were needed that appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court matter, it was provided today by the Court's decision in Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The so-called conservative wing of the Court came one vote short of issuing a decision that would have revolutionized the law of property rights in the United States.

The case involved the facially implausible claim by several coastal property owners along Florida's panhandle that they suffered a "taking" under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because the state and local governments acted to protect them and their neighbors from erosion (my amicus brief in the case is here). The alleged taking resulted from an extensive effort to build up the eroded shoreline with sand pumped from the ocean bottom offshore. Because the new beach was constructed atop publicly owned submerged lands, and paid for with public dollars, the public naturally enough claimed ownership of this new land.

Despite the fact that they were at serious risk of losing their homes to the ocean, plaintiffs claimed that the project impaired their property rights because it denied them direct contact with the ocean and deprived them of their common law right to expand their landownership through future accretions to their coastal property deposited by wind and waves. Most of the affected property owners thought they were getting more than a fair deal from the project, but a half dozen owners sued seeking financial compensation on top of the erosion protection they were receiving at public expense.

The case began as a claim that the government's implementation of the renourishment program pursuant to Florida Beach and Shorefront Preservation Act resulted in a taking. But when the Florida Supreme Court rejected the taking claim on the ground that the public has the right to build on submerged lands and therefore a coastal owner's interests do not include the right to continuous contact with the shore or to accretion, the case morphed into a claim that the Florida Supreme Court itself had effected a "judicial taking" as a result of its interpretation of the Florida common law of coastal property ownership.

The Court today unanimously rejected (with Stevens not voting) the taking claim because no justice believed that, whatever legal test might apply, the plaintiffs had suffered an impairment of their property rights. In short, the Supreme Court said that the Florida Supreme Court got Florida law right and so there was no possible basis for the argument that the state had adopted a novel reading of state law that would support a taking claim.

But where the Court sharply divided was on the question of whether there was any substance to the theory that a judicial ruling can ever amount to a "taking" under the Fifth Amendment. Despite the fact that Supreme Court had never recognized such a claim, Justice Scalia, joined by three other members of the Court (Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito and Thomas) had no difficulty concluding that a judicial taking could occur. Indeed, the four said that a taking should be found whenever a court issues a decision that alters an established property interest.

Justice Kennedy (joined by Justice Sotomayor) filed a concurring opinion essentially rejecting the judicial takings theory. He reasoned that there was no historical basis for the theory, that the theory would improperly place the courts in the position of making the political choice whether to exercise eminent domain power, and the Due Process Clause provided the needed protection against arbitrary and irrational rulings on property law questions.

Justice Breyer (joined by Justice Ginsburg) also declined to join Justice Scalia, arguing that the claim so obviously failed on the merits under any test that there was no need to addresses the merits of the judicial takings theory. While Justice Stevens recused himself (presumably because of his ownership of Florida coastal property) it seems likely that he would have joined the concurring justices in declining to embrace the judicial takings theory.

If Justice Scalia's viewpoint had prevailed, the Court's takings doctrine would have expanded to encompass a whole new universe of government actions, the many thousands of property rulings state courts issue each year. Federal court review under the Takings Clause of state court rulings would also have undermined the value of state autonomy in our federal systems that judicial conservatives ostensibly support in other contexts as well as the tradition of comity that has governed federal-state court relations in this country.

More importantly, Justice Scalia's "established right" theory would have basically elevated the Takings Clause into an absolute constitutional barrier to traditional common law-making. The state courts have long recognized that scope and nature of property rights must change in accord with changed circumstances and new values. Indeed, Justice Scalia, writing for the majority in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, acknowledged "changed circumstances or new knowledge may" alter the content of background principles of state law, rules which are generally rooted in common law. Now, speaking for a quixotic plurality, Justice Scalia has adopted a major narrower view of state authority to redefine property interests, essentially saying that the state courts may make such a change in their common law with federal court approval.

The closely fought and bitterly contested battle in this case has, happily, resulted in a victory for the state of Florida and its local communities and a rejection, for the foreseeable future, of the judicial takings theory. But it is remarkable how close the Court came to embarking on a new activist tear in behalf of private property holders.

California Expands Ocean Protections

Vermont Law School — 03 Jun 2010 04:00:00 EST

California is taking unprecedented action to prevent pollution, overfishing and development from further impacting its coastal waters, a Golden State official said at the June 3 kick off of Vermont Law School's 2010 "Hot Topics in Environmental Law" summer lecture series.

Michael Sutton, vice president of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Center for the Future of the Oceans and a member of the California Fish and Game Commission, said the state's Marine Life Protection Act is preserving one of the most spectacular coastlines and ocean environments in the world.

The 1999 act, which mandates a network of marine reserves in state waters, is a model for other coastal states to follow, Sutton said.

The act is succeeding because it's based on a tough law, sound science, effective politics, ample funding and public participation, he said.

"But I won't lie to you. It's not easy," he said, citing opposition from fishing groups, the state's budget crisis and other challenges.

Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface and are a major source of food, jobs and other economic benefits as well as biological diversity, he said.

"But we're not very kind to our oceans - what we put in them, what we take out of them and what we do around their edges," he said.

Sutton said the Gulf of Mexico oil spill highlights the risks of failing to protect marine areas, but like other environmental disasters it likely will prompt tighter regulations on pollution and other threats to oceans.

Creating marine reserves is a lasting way to protecting ocean environments, making them more resilient to climate change and increasing the numbers and diversity of marine life, he said.

The law also is boosting California's ocean economy, whose fishing, tourism, research and other sectors are worth an estimated $46 billion a year, far more than the state's vaunted agriculture industry, he said.

While many land areas are protected in the United States, less than 1 percent of the nation's oceans have been protected, in part, because most Americans rank ocean protection low on their priority list.

But Californians have embraced marine reserves as a way to maintain a healthy environment, jobs, seafood, recreation and other environmental and economic benefits, Sutton said.

In 2006, California voters passed Proposition 84, the largest conservation bond measure in U.S. history, and another major conservation bond initiative is pending.

The Marine Life Protection Act "is a call to action," he said. "People realize that what we've been doing to manage our oceans hasn't succeeded."

The law is intended to protect the state's marine life and habitats and to improve recreational, educational and study opportunities provided by marine ecosystems.

California is taking a regional approach to designing marine protected areas within state waters, which extend three miles out along its 1,100 mile coastline. The first reserve was created in 2007. More reserves are planned to cover the entire coastline.

To learn more, go to: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/

Dean Urges VLS Graduates to be Active Citizens

Vermont Law School — 24 May 2010 04:00:00 EST

In his commencement address to Vermont Law School's Class of 2010, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, M.D., urged the new graduates to seek common ground rather than confrontation as they begin their legal careers.

"Your profession isn't what makes it possible for you to change the country," he said. "It's who you are and what you're willing to do."

Dean spoke to more than 1,000 students, faculty, staff, trustees, family members and others who attended VLS' 35th commencement ceremonies on the South Royalton town green and the VLS campus on May 22.

His speech centered on the differences between the young graduates' generation and his own, which came of age during the Vietnam War and civil rights and women's rights movements.

Saying his generation relied on confrontation and rebellion, Dean, 61, told the graduates that their generation was more tolerant, inclusive and cooperative in pursing their goals.

"You're the first multicultural generation," he said, citing the election of President Obama. "The central question from your generation to mine is: 'When are you going to stop fighting about the things you've been fighting about for years and start focusing on the things we can agree on?'"

Dean encouraged the graduates to be active citizens of their communities, the nation and the world by seeking elected office, serving on library boards, planning commissions, school boards, church boards and other public service boards.

Class Speaker
Abel Russ

"I feel very good about leaving the country in your hands," he said. "Democracy is a human creation. It needs tending or it dies. You can't ever take time off from politics."

Citing the nation's troubled economy, Dean urged the graduates to work toward creating a sustainable economy based on fiscal discipline and a society based on equality and social justice.

"My generation focused on differences," he said. "Yours focuses on similarities. When you focus on similarities, you leave the politics of hate and anger behind."

Dean told the graduates to continue to be impatient because impatience often prompts change.

"There's no reason you can't have ideals and make them happen over time," he said. "Be cooperative citizens not just of your nation but of the world."

Read the coverage from The Times Argus

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Paul Ferber Retires, Lauded as Innovative Scholar

Vermont Law School — 24 May 2010 04:00:00 EST

For more than two decades at Vermont Law School, Professor Paul Ferber earned the respect of faculty members and students, who admired not only his scholarship and legal skills but his kindness.

Ferber, who retired in May, was widely praised at a Passages spring barbeque on the VLS campus, where Dean Jeff Shields presented him with a cherry rocking chair engraved with the VLS seal.

The event also marked the move to part-time status for Professor Linda Smiddy and Assistant Professor Giuliana Robertson, who was director of the Academic Success Program.

Two other milestones were marked at the Passages event: Associate Professor John Greabe's resignation to join Franklin Pierce Law Center's faculty, and Professor Tseming Yang's leave of absence as director of the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law to become deputy general counsel for international affairs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Ferber, who specializes in commercial law, professional responsibility and professional skills, received his JD degree, cum laude, from New York University in 1966. After more than two decades in private practice and teaching in Los Angeles, he joined VLS in 1987 and served as director of the General Practice Program from 1988 through 2001. Among the courses he taught were Contracts, Introduction to Lawyering, Legal Profession, Remedies, Sales, and Secured Transactions.

At the Passages barbeque, Professor Kinvin Wroth described Ferber as "rigorous, passionate, direct and unhesitating in expressing his views." He said Ferber brought a strong record of legal practice and pedagogy to VLS and that his retirement will leave a "huge" gap to fill.

Professor Susan Apel, who succeeded Ferber as director of the GPP, said he was the reason she came to and has stayed at VLS. "My life and career are due largely to Paul's influence," she said.
Apel said the current GPP is built on a foundation created by Ferber, whom she called "one of the kindest people I know. He leaves a great legacy and big shoes to fill."

Professor Oliver Goodenough said Ferber was ahead of his time in terms of integrating skills and doctrine, cognitive psychology and learning theory and entrepreneurial scholarship.

Assistant Professor Cathryn "Cappy" Nunlist, assistant director of the GPP, recalled her first few weeks as a student under Ferber, and how he displayed infinite patience with her and other first-year students.

"What I really appreciate about Paul was that he didn't kill us when we acted like blooming idiots," she said, chuckling.

Associate Professor Betsy Baker, whose office was close to Ferber's, said students often visited him and exclaimed that his classes were "the best I ever had." She cited Ferber's passion and his collegiality, adding: "He's been the heart beat of this faculty."

Erin Woolley Scholarship Fund Sets Record for VLS Class Gifts

Vermont Law School — 18 May 2010 04:00:00 EST

Class fund-raising co-chairs Sarah Buxton, Laurie Wheelock and Anna Ellis presented Dean Jeff Shields and Associate Dean Shirley Jefferson with the 2010 class gift.

The Vermont Law School Class of 2010 smashed the record for class gift funds by raising $83,757 for the Erin Woolley Memorial Scholarship, VLS officials announced at commencement on May 22.

The endowed annual award honors 2010 class member Erin Woolley, who received a Juris Doctor degree posthumously at commencement, which included a moment of silence in Woolley's memory.

The 2010 gift fund more than doubled the VLS record for class gifts and had a 75 percent class participation rate, another record for class gifts.

"This is the most successful gift drive in VLS history," said Susan Davidson, director of Alumni Programming and Annual Giving. "It's remarkable."

The endowment will allow a scholarship to be given annually starting this fall to a second- or third-year student who has overcome personal adversity, is not receiving merit scholarship and has demonstrated commitment to women's or children's issues or economic justice. Award recipients will be selected by the dean of students, the director of financial aid, the dean and a representative of the Class of 2010 or the Student Bar Association.

Professor Cheryl Hanna said Woolley personified the Class of 2010's collegiality, sense of community and its commitment to "speaking love and truth to power."

In February, the Class of 2010 announced its intent to create and fund a scholarship in the name of Woolley, 26, of Bangor, Maine, who died in March after a year-long battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Woolley told her classmates she was touched by their decision.

The Class of 2010's fund-raising co-chairs, Sarah Buxton, Anna Ellis and Laurie Wheelock, presented the class gift to Dean Jeff Shields and Associate Dean Shirley Jefferson at the class Awards Ceremony.

At the class Awards Ceremony on May 21 at the Chase Center and at commencement the next day on the South Royalton town green, students and faculty described Woolley as having a zest for life, a contagious enthusiasm and a positive outlook that she maintained throughout her struggle with cancer.

Professor Cheryl Hanna said Woolley personified the Class of 2010's collegiality, sense of community and its commitment to "speaking love and truth to power."

"We chose this scholarship as our class gift to support future VLS students who are facing significant life challenges, so they can realize their goal of finishing law school," said Wheelock. "Erin's fortitude, determination and grace inspired us all."

Woolley graduated summa cum laude in 2006 from the University of Maine, Orono, where she majored in English and women's studies. After college, she worked in the Maine courts as a legal advocate for women and children seeking refuge from domestic violence

In 2007, she enrolled at VLS, where she continued to advocate for women and children. In her first year at VLS, she joined the Women's Law Group and Law Students for Reproductive Justice. The summer after her first year, she became the first legal intern for Safeline, the domestic violence action network in Orange County.

Class fund-raising co-chairs Laurie Wheelock, Anna Ellis and Sarah Buxton.

By her second year at VLS, Woolley stood out as a leader in her class. She co-chaired the Women's Law Group, held the secretary position in LSRJ and co-directed the VLS production of the Vagina Monologues, which benefits women's anti-violence groups.

After she was diagnosed with cancer, she continued in her course work, volunteer work and leadership roles while undergoing treatments. During the summer of 2009, she worked for the U.S. District Attorney's Office in Bangor. She planned to practice family law after graduating from VLS.

The Class of 2010 gift campaign's original goal was $50,000, which was the amount needed to create the endowment, but the goal was later raised to $75,000 in gifts and pledges.

"What a beautiful demonstration of solidarity," said Buxton. "From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of our class, thank you to the whole VLS community for your generosity."

Kagan a "High-Risk, High-Return" Choice for Justice, Hanna Says

Vermont Law School — 10 May 2010 04:00:00 EST

By Cheryl Hanna
Professor of Law, Vermont Law School

President Barack Obama has nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace Justice Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court. Photo courtesy of Doc Searls/CC BY-SA 2.0.

Today, President Barack Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace Associate Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court. Kagan is a high-risk, high-return nominee for President Obama. If she can survive the nomination, the president is likely to get exactly the kind of judge that the court needs. By all accounts, Kagan is brilliant in the way that non-ideological thinkers are brilliant. She sees all sides. She listens to arguments. She has no apparent personal or political agenda.

Second, she is politically savvy: as the dean of Harvard Law School, she got the conservative and liberal faculty members to kiss and make up after a 20-year battle that nearly destroyed the law school. She even got the faculty to modernize the curriculum, which is much harder than getting a unanimous opinion. If she can bring those same skills to the court, she may be likely to win over some of her contemporaries, such as Chief Justice John Roberts.

Kagan won't trend left but will trend center, and that is a far better strategy than always writing in dissent. She could help moderate the court, which is what Obama understands has to happen in order to reverse the court's swing to the right. And on issues like national security and presidential power, she may be a conservative's dream. There is probably no nominee who, in private at least, doesn't delight the conservatives more than Kagan because she is about as moderate a pick as they are going to get.

But her nomination is not without its risks to the president. While her personal story is impressive, it hardly tugs at the heart strings in the way that Justice Sotomayor's story does. Kagan isn't a "Supreme Court first." She is the daughter of a New York lawyer, and while she most certainly had to overcome some gender bias on her way to court, her personal narrative is largely one of privilege. Kagan is a lawyer's lawyer—popular among the legal elite but not among baseball fans or immigrant families. Thus, by nominating Kagan, the president risks reinforcing critics who consider him a liberal intellectual who is out of touch with mainstream American values.

Third, Kagan has no prior judicial experience. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, some of the most successful justices, including Earl Warren and Hugo Black, came to the court without ever having donned a black robe. But in a world of highly politicized nominations, Kagan's lack of experience is already a rallying cry for the opposition. The spin from the White House is that Kagan comes from "outside the judicial monastery"—a phrase that captures the president's insistence that the next justice must understand how the law affects real people. While an important historical shift, it is slightly disingenuous. Kagan may not have been a judge, but she also has never represented an indigent client.

Fourth, like Sotomayor, Kagan is not without her wedge-issue baggage. While Sotomayor's nomination fueled the debate over affirmative action and identity politics, Kagan is fueling debate over homosexuality and particularly the "don't ask/don't tell" law in the military. She was one of many law school deans, including Vermont Law School's, who forbade the military to recruit on campus because of its discriminatory policy. She eventually rescinded that stance when the Supreme Court, in F.A.I.R. v Rumsfeld, by 8 – 0, ruled the policy constitutional. But her decision as dean makes her appear sympathetic to, if not an advocate of, the rights of gays and lesbians. With a country deeply divided over issues like same-sex marriage, her stance on "don't ask/don't tell" gives conservative senators an easy way to not only oppose her but to accuse the president of wanting to pack the court with activist judges who would carry out his social agenda.

This dynamic is further complicated by Kagan's personal history. She is a single woman with no children, but, unlike Sotomayor, has never been married. This fact has fueled speculation on blogs that she may be a lesbian. A single, unmarried person is always at risk of this kind of modern-day witch hunt. (Remember Harriet Miers? The White House went out of its way to get quotes about her character from former boyfriends to try to put a lid on speculation about her sexual preferences.) And so, for the first time in Supreme Court history, we are about to witness one of the most subtle, albeit most sexist, confirmation battles as the opposition tries to create innuendo about Kagan's sexuality and scare the public, further painting the president as a radical.

It is also notable that Kagan has forgone motherhood, either by default or design . There is already criticism of her for being ambitious and calculated about her career—a character "flaw" that is never attributed to men. It is not likely her nomination will spark dialogue about how women often forgo families, including children, to further their careers. It would be hard to serve as the dean of Harvard or as solicitor general with children because of the inevitable overwhelming demands and well-documented discrimination that working mothers face. Whether Kagan will be sympathetic to gender questions remains to be seen, but she will no doubt face her share of gender discrimination in its most invidious form over the next few months.

Thus, the president may not get much short-term political capital by nominating Kagan, but he'll get plenty of legacy out of it. No serious lawyer doubts that Kagan would serve the court with great distinction for many decades. In the next five to eight years, the court will likely be an extremely different one than it was just a few years ago. There is a new generation emerging and more appointments to come. Kagan is a proven leader and what this court needs more than anything else are Justices who can bring the rule of law into the 21st century. Kagan is an ideal choice to lead that transformation, which is why the president is willing to gamble on her.

VLS Opens Campus Arboretum

Vermont Law School — 23 Apr 2010 04:00:00 EST

A White Ash behind Jacobs House is one of the trees recently tagged by VLS's Arborist Society.

Vermont Law School established an arboretum on campus Tuesday as part of the school's Earth Week festivities.

The arboretum includes small aluminum identification tags hung on a number of trees across campus, as well as a Web site with an interactive map that highlights some of the trees.

The project is part of the VLS native campus initiative, whose goal is to foster native plants and trees and prevent non-native and invasive species on campus.

The school's Arborist Society, a subgroup of the Environmental Law Society, spent the past three years raising funds to buy the tree tags.

The arboretum is modeled after arboretums on other college campuses that emphasize their natural beauty, in part, by labeling their trees, said Markell Ripps 3L, co-chair of the Aborist Society.

"As a natural resources major (at Cornell University), this is something that I really enjoyed using as a learning tool because the tags provided the common and scientific name of the tree," she said.

Society members opened the arboretum with a dedication ceremony and two nature walks during Earth Week.

"During our walks, we stopped by each tagged tree and talked about its importance and relation to the campus initiative," Ripps said. "The group will continue to raise money to buy more tree tags for the campus, as well as for several prominent trees along the Kent's Ledge trail."

Currently, the tagged trees include the maple and white pine in front of Cornell Library, the lilac near the bike shed and the box elder and birches behind Debevoise Hall. Some trees also have been tagged along the White River bordering campus to highlight the importance of a riparian buffer.

Learn more about green initiatives at VLS.

VLS Starts Composting on Campus

Vermont Law School — 23 Apr 2010 04:00:00 EST

Hurricane Flats, a local produce farm, will assist VLS with its new composting program.

As part of its activities marking the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, Vermont Law School on Monday started a composting program on campus.

The VLS Campus Greening Committee (CGC), which is behind the composting, expanded its collaboration with Hurricane Flats, a 37-acre certified organic local farm that already provides delicious food to SORO Café, the campus cafeteria,

VLS will compost the waste its faculty, students and staff generate on campus.
Acceptable compostable items include all food waste, biodegradable dishware from the cafeteria and soda cups. Unacceptable items include straws, food and gum wrappers and plastic cup lids.

"Please make sure that you are not contaminating the compost or the other recycling bins," said CGC member Allie Silverman 1L.

VLS also has started an "Eco-Rep" program, where CGC members stand by the recycling bins in the SORO Cafe and promote awareness about what can and can not be recycled and composted. The CGC plans to develop a better bin and signage system to encourage composting and improved recycling.

Learn more about green initiatives at VLS.

Speth Calls for a Radical Overhaul of Government, Economy, Environmentalism

Vermont Law School — 22 Apr 2010 04:00:00 EST

The United States must replace its destructive "growth fetish" with a new economy based on sustainable policies if the nation is to survive, Vermont Law School Professor Gus Speth said Thursday.

Marking the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, Speth told a Chase Center audience that a nationwide coalition should be formed to create a new economy based on social justice, ecological health and political inclusion.

Speth, an elder statesman of U.S. environmental policy, recently joined the VLS faculty after a decade as the dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

In his address, titled "A New American Environmentalism and the New Economy," Speth recalled being at the first Earth Day in 1970 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

"It was a joyous occasion and hopes were so high for what could be accomplished," he said. "I'm here today to discuss what happened to that enthusiasm."

Speth said major achievements have been made since 1970 in improving the environment, including passage of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and other laws.

But he said the nation's democratic system is failing, creating a political, economic, social and environmental crisis.

That failure stems from a national obsession with economic expansion, a profit-driven policy that has concentrated wealth in the hands of a few, damaged schools, the middle class and workers and endangered our environment, natural resources and public health, he said.

"Our democracy has become weak, shallow and corrupted," Speth said. Instead of profits, our society should focus on "fairness, solidarity and sustainability."

A new economy would involve a dramatic recreation of democratic life, he said.

"Our current capitalist economic system with its emphasis on continued expansion isn't sustainable in the face of environmental ruin," he said. "It seems to me one conclusion is inescapable. We need a new environmentalism in America. The world needs a new environmentalism in America. And here is the core of the new environmentalism: it seeks a new economy. And to deliver on the promise of the new economy, we must build a new politics."

Speth said a "sustaining economy" would give top priority to sustaining both human and natural communities. He said a "post-growth economy" doesn't mean no growth.

"It is abundantly clear that American society and many others do need growth along many dimensions that increase human welfare—growth in good jobs, affordable health care, education, research and training, investment in public infrastructure, green technologies, restoration of ecosystems and local communities, non-military government spending, international assistance for sustainable development," he said. "A post-growth economy would shift resources away from consumption and into investments in long-term social and environmental needs."

Speth said those working for America's betterment should unite in one movement.

"The best hope for real change is a fusion of those concerned about the environment, social justice and strong democracy into one powerful progressive force," he said. "Environmentalists should therefore support social progressives in addressing the crisis of inequality now unraveling America's social fabric and join with those seeking to reform politics and strengthen democracy."

Same-Sex Marriage No Threat to Traditional Marriage, Law Professor Says

Vermont Law School — 19 Apr 2010 04:00:00 EST

Same-sex marriage poses no threat to heterosexual marriage, birth rates, raising healthy children or any other traditional cultural values, a Northwestern University scholar said April 15 at Vermont Law School.

"There's no evidence to support the claim that same-sex marriage corrodes traditional marriage," said Andrew Koppelman, a professor of law and political science at Northwestern University.

Koppelman gave the keynote address at "The Law and Politics of Marriage Equality: Vermont, The Nation and the World" conference to mark the 10th anniversary of civil unions in Vermont and the first anniversary of legal marriage for same-sex couples in Vermont.

The conference continued April 16 at the University of Vermont with panel discussions on civil unions, legal marriage, parenting rights, religious politics and other issues and a look back at Baker v. State, the landmark litigation, legislative debate and law that resulted in civil unions in Vermont.

Koppelman's keynote address, titled "Careful with that Gun: The New (?) Arguments Against Marriage Equality," explored how religious conservatives have retooled their opposition to same-sex marriage.

He said Vermont's decision was "one of the most successful civil rights moments" in U.S. history, but also a "politically unstable solution."

Many Americans think homosexual sex is morally wrong and oppose same-sex marriage, Koppelman said, adding that those trying to defend these views have relied on two strategies.

One is to claim that such sex is wrong irrespective of consequences, that there is something intrinsic to sex that makes it right only when it takes place within heterosexual marriage where there is no contraception or possibility of divorce, he said.

The second strategy focuses on consequences, or the harmful effects on heterosexual families of societal tolerance for homosexuality, he said.

Koppelman said both strategies fail.

"The first cannot show that the intrinsic goodness of sex is at once derived from its reproductive character and present in the coitus of married couples who know themselves to be infertile, but not present in any sex act other than heterosexual marital coitus," he said. "As for evidence of bad consequences of tolerance of homosexuality, the evidence is all the other way."

Gay marriage opponents argue that children raised by homosexual couples are at higher risk for emotional problems as are children of divorce and single-parent households, he said. Koppelman said there is no evidence to support such claims.

He said the "red state model"- with an emphasis on marrying when couples are young, foregoing sex outside of marriage and "shotgun marriages" when a single woman becomes pregnant - has resulted in high divorce rate in areas where many conservative Christians live.

The "blue state model" in liberal states where marriage often is delayed until couples are more mature, have finished their educations and attained higher incomes has resulted in a lower divorce rate, better parenting and healthier children, he said.

Koppelman said there is no reason that marriage's original intention of uniting a man and woman for life can't also apply to gays and lesbians.

"Opposition to same-sex marriage isn't based on sound, reasonable arguments," he said.

Professor Gil Kujovich, vice dean for academic affairs, agreed with Koppelman that gay marriage isn't a threat to heterosexual marriage.

When Vermont passed its landmark civil unions laws a decade ago, "I didn't check in with my wife every two weeks to ask, ‘Are we still Ok?'" Kujovich said.

Global Warming Requires Changes in Legal Framework, VJEL Speaker Says

Vermont Law School — 26 Mar 2010 04:00:00 EST

UNC School of Law Professor Victor Flatt delivered the 2010 VJEL Symposium keynote address to a full crowd in the Chase Community Center.

To thrive in a world changed by global warming, people must move beyond a defensive posture, the keynote speaker said Friday at the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law's annual symposium.

Victor Flatt, a professor of environmental law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, urged VLS students to devote themselves to finding ways to reduce climate change rather than trying merely to keep things from worsening.

Climate change could be "the lens through which we finally focus on other important environmental, human and social needs that have been long neglected," Flatt said.

Titled "Surviving and Thriving: Climate Change Adaption and Mitigation," the symposium featured panel discussions on climate change's impacts on agriculture, energy and water.

Flatt told the audience it will take three things for people to thrive, rather than merely survive, in a world changed by global warming.

First, people must "fully appreciate and understand what we are up against," he said, both in the physical world and in the current legal and policy framework.

Second, people must decide and articulate what they want for their future. And, third, they must have a plan for achieving those goals, he said.

Flatt said large pieces of the climate change puzzle are "dangerously under-examined," including legal frameworks in public health, insurance and natural resources.

At UNC's Center for Law, Environment, Adaptation, and Resources, the focus is on examining how legal frameworks must change along with the changing environment.

People's understanding of the science of climate change has grown tremendously in recent years, but there has been relatively little progress in understanding how science interacts with human nature and our political economy, Flatt said.

For instance, several recent studies have looked at why the danger of climate change fails to energize many people and concluded that humans have a difficult time doing anything about incremental harms, he said.

Flatt said environmental groups have long urged a reduction of fossil fuel use but failed to be open to alternative energy sources that don't fit their definition of being environmentally friendly.

"So, we in the environmental community need to be clearer both to ourselves and the general public about what the issues with respect to the climate are and to understand that there are a range of options to respond to this," he said. "We need to be specific about why such options are not preferable and what trade-offs must be made."

Vermont Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Lake Champlain Pollution Case

Vermont Law School — 19 Mar 2010 04:00:00 EST

CLF attorney Anthony Iarrapino '03 arguing before the Vermont Supreme Court.

At the Vermont Supreme Court's annual session at Vermont Law School, attorneys for the Conservation Law Foundation and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources argued March 17 over a permit for Montpelier's wastewater treatment plant.

The Oakes Hall classroom where the justices presided was filled to capacity with students, faculty and staff.

CLF attorney Anthony Iarrapino, a VLS 2003 alumnus, and Assistant Attorney General Michael Duane argued over whether a federal Clean Water Act permit violates the statutory five-year limitation on permits when it relies exclusively on data that is more than five years old.

Iarrapino said Montpelier's discharge permit would allow the plant to release too much polluting phosphorous into the Winooski River, which empties into Lake Champlain.

Dwayne said the permit was appropriately issued to Montpelier and that Vermont's towns and cities are reducing their polluting discharge and shouldn't be burdened with unpredictable permit requirements.

Both sides agreed that pollution from point-source pollution from wastewater treatment plants has been reduced over the years and that most of the lake's phosphorous pollution comes from farmland runoff and other non-point sources.

The ANR appealed an Environmental Court decision that vacated a discharge permit granted by the agency to the Montpelier Wastewater Treatment plant.

The Vermont Supreme Court held hearings at Vermont Law School on Wednesday, March 17, 2010.

The facility discharges phosphorous waste into the Winooski River, which empties into Lake Champlain. The lake, which is designated an impaired waterway, is polluted phosphorous, which causes toxic algal blooms and excessive aquatic plant growth. Because of the lake's poor water quality, the federal Clean Water Act requires Vermont to establish and monitor a total maximum daily load (TMDL) for pollutants, such as phosphorous, that go into the lake.

The TMDL was completed in 2002 and, after an analysis of the impact to the lake of all sources of phosphorous, allocated a maximum discharge for the Montpelier Wastewater Treatment plant of 7,253 pounds of phosphorous per year.

This limitation was placed in a 2002 permit granted to the facility. That permit expired in 2007. When the plant applied for a new permit, ANR adopted -- without further calculation or study -- the same 7,253 pound allowance it granted in 2002.

The CLF challenged this new permit, arguing that the Clean Water Act's five-year limitation on permits implicitly requires ANR to engage in further study of the facility's impact before issuing a new discharge permit for an impaired waterway.

The Environmental Court granted summary judgment to CLF and remanded the case to ANR to determine whether its mandate to meet the phosphorous target for Lake Champlain requires the ANR to set more stringent limits on the facility than the current TMDL set in 2002.

Amicus briefs were filed by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, which supports reversing the Environmental Court, and by former Vermont environmental regulators, who support affirming the Environmental Court's decision and who are represented by the VLS Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic.

VLS Panelists Defend School’s Ban on Military Recruiting

Vermont Law School — 19 Mar 2010 04:00:00 EST

Vermont Law School's ban of military recruiting on campus upholds the school's anti-discrimination policy and should be retained until the "don't ask, don't tell" law is repealed.

That was the position of five of six panelists at the school's annual JAG/Solomon Amendment meeting on March 16 to discuss VLS's policy of prohibiting military recruiters on campus until openly gay men and women are allowed to serve in the U.S. armed forces.

Vice Dean Gil Kujovich said VLS's anti-discrimination policy applies to all employers, including the military. He said military recruiters would be welcome on campus when the "don't ask, don't tell" law is repealed.

Professor Greg Johnson and Associate Professor Jackie Gardina went over the history of the Solomon Amendment and VLS's response and urged VLS faculty, staff and students to actively work for the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" law.

Dan Miller 2L and Kathy Stickel 3L, both Army veterans who served alongside gay and lesbian soldiers, said they oppose "don't ask, don't tell" and support VLS's policy of prohibiting military recruiting on campus.

"'Don't ask, don't tell' tells every kid in this country, nothing can outweigh how hideous we find the desires of your heart," Stickel said. "To me, it's treason - Americans who take other Americans off the fighting line" because of their sexual orientation even though they are exceptional soldiers.

The sixth panelist, Robert Rachlin, a VLS trustee and professor, agreed that the "don't ask, don't tell" law should be repealed, but he said the school's ban on military recruiting is "myopic and misdirected."

Rachlin said the "don't ask, don't tell" law is irrational discrimination because it isn't supported by evidence that the military would be damaged by allowing openly gay men and lesbians to serve.

He said he applauded the "fervor and nobility" of Vermont Law School's policy, but that the policy worsens the financial burden on VLS students, many of whom go on to work in the public sector rather than higher-paying private practice.

The Solomon Amendment is the federal law that withholds some federal research money from law schools and universities that do not give military recruiters the same access to campus as other employers.

VLS is one of two law schools in the nation that bar military recruiters because of the "don't ask, don't tell" law, which allows gay men and lesbians to serve as long as they keep their sexual orientation secret.

Rachlin said VLS is paying too high a price for banning military recruiters on campus and that the estimated $300,000 to $500,000 that the school foregoes annually in federal funds could go toward scholarships or other ways to reduce tuition.

"From a rational standpoint, the school's policy doesn't pass muster," he said. "It leaves us poorer, but with no benefit. The thing to do is to vigorously protest this wicked law, but not a beau geste which costs us dearly but has little provable effect."

Experts Promote Benefits of For-profit, Non-profit Hybrids

Vermont Law School — 20 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

The world's financial system doesn't have enough money to fill the growing global need for philanthropic services, a problem that can be tackled through stronger collaboration between governments, corporations and non-profit groups.

That was the word from a number of panelists and audience members at the Vermont Law Review's 10th Annual Symposium, "Corporate Creativity: The Vermont L3C and Other Developments in Social Entrepreneurship" on Feb. 18 and 19.

The event explored hybrid organizations that use for-profit business practices to achieve non-profit goals. Panelists and audience members discussed the legal structures and methods for achieving non-profit goals with for-profit mechanisms, both domestically and abroad. The event also examined low-profit limited liability companies (L3Cs), an organizational form that Vermont was the first in the nation to adopt.

Focusing on both theory and practice, the symposium furthered legal scholarship in the field of social enterprise, while equipping legal, business and non-profit professionals with the tools needed to accomplish their social ventures.

In 2008, Vermont became the first state in the country to enact low-profit limited liability companies, a cross between a non-profit organization and a for-profit corporation. L3Cs are designated by the Vermont Secretary of State as low-profit with charitable or education goals. Five states now recognize L3Cs.

Dean Jeff Shields opened the symposium by encouraging VLS students to explore "this middle ground between traditional for-profit business ventures and mission-driven non-profit efforts."

The first panelist was Arthur Wood, the former vice president of social financial services at Ashoka, the nonprofit organization that pioneered social entrepreneurship. He said the world's social services network has been hard hit by the recession and that the current system for funding philanthropic efforts is unsustainable.

Wood said the world lacks structures for long-term financing and collaboration among governments, corporations and non-profit groups, which traditionally operate "in silos rather than working together."

He called for an overhaul of legal and financial regulations, the leveraging of private capital and the creation of financial incentives geared toward promoting collaboration between the public and private sectors.

"We need to change the whole paradigm to have a social and economic impact," he said. "It's not a question of when we should - we have to do it. Do we stay with the status quo or create a structure to empower ordinary Americans to become social entrepreneurs?"

The symposium brought together some of the top names in the field of social entrepreneurship. In addition to Wood, panelists included Robert Lang, originator of the L3C who discussed its history and application; Dana Brakman Reiser, a Brooklyn Law School professor who discussed legal issues arising from the creation and operation of hybrid organizations; and Stephen Lloyd, an attorney in the United Kingdom who created the Community Interest Company, which also bridges the nonprofit and forprofit worlds and is used by social purpose organizations using business models to fund their activities.

VLS Professor Betsy Schmidt said the panelists and audience members benefited from the vibrant discussion about the business forms that can be used to help solve society's problems.

"We recognized that the current binary system, which categorizes every enterprise as either for-profit or non-profit, can restrict our abilities to bring the sectors together to solve problems," she said. "Several new business forms have emerged in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. They include the L3C and the B corporation in the United States, as well as the community interest company (CIC) in the United Kingdom."

Panelists discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each of these business forms and examined the abilities of traditional for-profit and non-profit business forms to further social goals.

"The consensus was that no one business form works for every situation, and that many of these newer business forms will change over time to meet some of the concerns expressed by those at the conference and elsewhere," Schmidt said.

Professor Linda Smiddy said the conference addressed new organizational forms that facilitate cooperation among the non-profit, governmental and for-profit sectors for the purpose of solving society's problems.

"One theme was to explore ways to stimulate such cooperation and to explore the issues raised by the creation of new organizational forms from the perspective of different professions: law, business, nonprofit, tax, economics, accountancy and others," Smiddy said.

More information is available at: http://lawreview.vermontlaw.edu/symposia/symposia.htm

Panel Questions Safety, Finances of Vermont Yankee

Vermont Law School — 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

Grafitti spray painted on a bridge outside Montpelier, Vt., states sentiments about Vermont Yankee that were echoed by many panelists and attendees at Tuesday's event.

The Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is unsafe and a planned spin off to put it under new ownership is financially questionable, according to panelists at a public forum Tuesday at Vermont Law School.

The Advocacy Group of the Environmental Law Society (ELS) hosted the meeting on Vermont Yankee, where radioactive contamination has been found to be leaking into groundwater at the facility.

ELS members gave an overview of the nuclear reactor, which supplies 30 percent of Vermont's energy and also feeds the New England power grid. The plant opened in 1972, making it one of the oldest nuclear reactors in the nation. Entergy Nuclear bought the facility in 2002 from Central Vermont Public Service, Green Mountain Power and other Vermont utilities.

Vermont Yankee, the state's lone nuclear reactor, is seeking state approval for a 20-year renewal of its operating license, which expires in 2012. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission decides whether a nuclear plant is safe to operate, while the Vermont Legislature and the state Public Service Board (PSB) decide whether a plant's operation is in the public good.

Utility regulators, state legislators and the PSB recently criticized Vermont Yankee's management for making misleading statements about radioactive tritium found in the plant's groundwater monitoring wells and underground pipes along the Connecticut River.

The Vermont Department of Health said Monday that contamination levels of radioactive tritium continue to rise in a large area at the plant.

About 150 people attended the VLS public meeting at Chase Community Center, where James Moore of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group said Vermont Yankee was too old to be reliable or safe.
He said Entergy has proven itself untrustworthy because of its repeated denials about underground pipes carrying radioactive material.

"It's just asking for trouble" to relicense the plant, he said.

Moore said relicensing Vermont Yankee would make it 60 years old when a new license expires in 2032, which would make the plant more than a decade older than the current world record of 47 years for a nuclear reactor.

If Vermont Yankee closes, renewable electricity from wind, solar, hydropower and other sources and energy efficiency could provide an ample, safe and affordable supply of power and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Moore said.

Panelist Don Kreis, who is a VLS assistant professor, discussed Entergy's corporate spinoff proposal in which a new company, Enexus, would take ownership of Vermont Yankee. Kreis said he had no opinion on whether the facility should be relicensed, but that Entergy has failed to meet its legal obligation to prove that its spin off proposal would benefit Vermonters. Enexus would be $3.5 billion in debt at its creation, he said.

Panelists Arnie and Maggie Gundersen discussed nuclear safety, oversight and the role of the law.
Arnie Gundersen is a consultant to the Vermont Legislature on Vermont Yankee, serving on the independent oversight panel that reviewed the plant's reliability last year.

He said Vermont Yankee managers repeatedly denied the plant had underground pipes carrying radioactive material. He said the company has a culture of dishonesty and that replacing the plant's top officials likely wouldn't correct the problem.

Vermont Yankee officials said the tritium contamination poses no public health risk, but Maggie Gundersen said it was clear a plume of radioactive groundwater was moving toward the Connecticut River beside the plant.

"There is a public safety hazard," she said.

California’s Smog Czar Touts Golden State’s Efforts to Create Sustainable Communities

Vermont Law School — 06 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

Mary Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board, deliverd Vermont Law School's 2010 Norman Williams Lecture.

Mary Nichols acknowledged it took some chutzpah for California's smog czar to lecture Vermonters about sprawl, pollution and land-use planning given the differences in how the two states have handled those issues.

"I'm not even a planner," said Nichols, who delivered the sixth annual Norman Williams Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Planning and the Law at Vermont Law School on Feb. 4. "I'm an air pollution regulator who's struggled with local communities" to get their cooperation in tackling the Golden State's air, water and sprawl problems.

But Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board (ARB), is at the vanguard of California's pioneering efforts to align greenhouse gas emission reduction targets with transportation, housing and land-use planning processes.

The goal is to reshape the Golden State's car culture, turning the most polluted state into a model for federal climate change policy.

In addition to cutting emissions, California's strategic planning approach is intended to create communities with improved public health, accessibility and sustainability.

Nichols, one of the nation's leading environmental lawyers, was appointed ARB chairman in 2007, a position she also held from1978 to 1983.

"We're trying to wring carbon out of our society and our economy," she said. "And it all comes back to planning and land use."

Speaking to a crowd of about 200 people in the Chase Community Center, Nichols discussed California's efforts to curb sprawl and cut greenhouse gas emissions through better cooperation between state and local governments.

In 2008, California passed Senate bill 375, the nation's first law to control greenhouse gas emissions by curbing sprawl. The law includes emissions-reductions goals for which regions can plan, coordinates disjointed planning activities and provides incentives rather than penalties for local governments and developers to follow new planned growth patterns.

Nichols said SB 375 is intended to reshape California's communities into cleaner, more sustainable and walkable communities with alternative transportation options and increased quality of life.

"We're doing integrated environmental problem solving," she said, "a holistic approach instead of looking at each issues separately."

Nichols said that for California to reach its greenhouse gas reduction goals, it must address how the state's communities grow. SB 375 requires the ARB to develop regional greenhouse gas emission reduction targets to be achieved from the automobile and light truck sectors for 2020 and 2035. The ARB works with California's 18 metropolitan planning organizations to align their transportation, housing and regional land-use plans with greenhouse gas reductions. The MPOs will prepare a "sustainable communities strategy" to reduce the amount of vehicle miles traveled in their respective regions and demonstrate the ability for the region to attain the ARB's targets.

SB 375 is part of California's climate action plan, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which is a "major advance in land-use planning," Nichols said.

California's smog is notorious, but the state's landmark climate action plan shows that Californians also care about public health, she said.

The Golden State's population continues to rise, putting more cars on the road for longer periods, and its geography of ocean winds, mountains and valleys helps to trap smog that damages human health and crops.

"California still has the worst air quality in the nation," but laws passed in recent decades have improved conditions remarkably, she said.

Nichols said she's been accused of being a "job killer" who sends "air cops with guns and badges" to ticket people whose tires are underinflated. But she said she supports a "new clean energy economy" that rewards investment and innovation, creates jobs and serves as the engine for sustainable economic growth.

Nichols' priorities include promoting the state's landmark climate change program, reducing diesel pollution at ports and passing regulations to provide cleaner air for Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley.

"Don't expect immediate results," she said, "but we can't wait to start these corrective measures. I don't think fear of global warming is enough to motivate people, but I think this new law (SB 375) will provide the incentive for people" to take action.

Pulitzer-Prize Winning Writer Chris Hedges Blasts Corporate America, Celebrity Culture

Vermont Law School — 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

Former New York Times writer Chris Hedges spoke at Vermont Law School on January 28,2010.

Chris Hedges wants a revolution.

"I'm a dissident," he said. "I'm for all forms of resistance."

In a Jan. 28 speech at Vermont Law School, the Pulitzer-Prize winning writer criticized America's celebrity culture and major corporations, saying a "perverted" profit demand has wreaked moral, political, economic and environmental havoc on the United States.

He called for a wholesale makeover of American society, including a regulatory crackdown on corporations, empowerment of the working class and a resurrection of traditional values, including honesty, modesty and self-sacrifice.

"There are powerful corporate entities arrayed against us," Hedges told a crowd of about 150 people at the Chase Community Center. "These anti-democratic forces, which will seek to make an alliance with the radical Christian right and other extremists, will use fear, chaos, the hatred for the ruling elites and the specter of left-wing dissent and terrorism to impose draconian controls to extinguish our democracy. And while they do it, they will be waving the American flag, chanting patriotic slogans, promising law and order and clutching the Christian cross."

Hedges said a diseased form of unregulated capitalism and celebrity worship has infected American society, replacing old-fashioned decency with a ruinous belief in moral nihilism.

"We have a right, in the cult of the self, to get whatever we desire," he said. "Once fame and wealth are achieved, they become their own justification, their own morality. How one gets there is irrelevant."

Hedges called for Americans to engage in "moral resistance" against corporate "hedonists of power."

"If we do not immediately halt our elite's rapacious looting of the public treasury and our bizarre state socialism for corporations ... our anemic democracy will be replaced with a robust national police state," he said. "Tens of millions of people, brutally controlled, will live in perpetual poverty, a state of neo-feudalism. This is the inevitable result of unchecked corporate capitalism. The stimulus and bailout plans are not about saving us. They are about saving them."

A former war correspondent for The New York Times, Hedges came to VLS to discuss his latest book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.

"The cost of our empire of illusion is not being paid for by corporate titans," he said. "It is being paid for on the streets of our inner cities, in former manufacturing towns and in depressed rural enclaves."

Hedges opened his remarks by saying his old friend Ralph Nader had urged him to use his VLS speech to explore the Bush Administration's failure to defend the rule of law, the poor, working class and the environment.

"A self-regulating market inevitably turns human beings and the natural environment into commodities, a situation that ensures the destruction of both society and the natural world," he said. "We must opt out of the mainstream. We must articulate and stand firmly and unequivocally, even if this turns us at first into outcasts, on the side of working men and women. We must no longer be content with the crumbs tossed to us by the power elite in the vain hope that accommodation will work. We must become as militant as those who are seeking our enslavement. If we remain passive we will soon be engulfed by a ruthless totalitarian capitalism. If we remain passive, as we undergo the largest transference of wealth upwards in American history, we will become serfs. If we fight back, we have a chance."

Hedges held up Michael Jackson as an example of commercial exploitation.

"He became a commodity, a product, one to be sold, used and manipulated," he said. "He was infected by the moral nihilism and personal disintegration that is at the core of our corporate culture. He was a reflection of us in the extreme."

Hedges said Americans are committing collective suicide in their worship of celebrity culture.

"The cult of self, which Jackson embodied, dominates our culture," he said. "This cult has within it the classic traits of psychopaths; superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying, deception, and manipulation, and the incapacity for remorse or guilt."

President Obama has been no better in resisting corporate money than his recent predecessors in the White House, and Democrats and Republicans alike have failed on the Iraq war, the federal deficit, health care, trade and other issues, he said.

The decline of American empire began long before the current economic meltdown or the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hedges said. "It began when we shifted, in the words of the historian Charles Maier, from an ‘empire of production' to an ‘empire of consumption.'"

The United States is devolving into a Third World nation in which corporate forces will never permit real reform. he said.

Hedges said American voters have rejected Nader because he offers no easy solutions.

"He's a pariah who speaks with moral authority," he said. "He shows the ugly reality and people would rather be fooled than make the commitment needed to fix this nation's problems. He's reviled by the society he's trying to save."

Hedges talked poignantly about the moral choices he has witnessed, including a Muslim farmer who gave his cow's milk to a dying Serbian baby during the Bosnian War. He also cited his father, Thomas, a Presbyterian minister and activist during the Vietnam War and civil rights and gay rights movements.
At the end of his speech, the Vermont native recalled his 2003 resignation from The New York Times, where he was reprimanded for his public comments against the Iraq War, which his editors said could jeopardize public trust in the paper's impartiality.

Hedges choked up briefly when said he chose to quit rather than to be silent and compromise his ethics. He received a standing ovation when he stepped from the podium.

Brown-Bag Insights on Copenhagen

Vermont Law School — 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

The UN Climate Wall.

With the new semester under way, the Vermont Law School delegation to the U.N. Climate Conference shared their insights during a brown-bag lunch presentation on campus on Jan. 28.

Several students and professors of the nine-member delegation gave an overview of their time at the historic meeting, an experience that they chronicled in their "VLS in Copenhagen" blog.

Although the delegation reported being disappointed in the conference's failure to conclude with a substantive, legally binding accord, they departed with a renewed sense of commitment to gain ground on the domestic front.

Professor Teresa Clemmer opened the slide show and panel discussion with an overview of the alphabet soup of acronyms, terms, players, targets, timetables, security precautions and space crunch at the conference, which drew 45,000 attendees to the 15,000-capacity Bella Center.

The panel also included Assistant Professor Laurie Beyranevand and 3L students Anna Ellis, Lillian Kortlandt and Jessica Scott.

The VLS students said the first-hand experience brought to life the climate change issues they are studying. They said their coursework prepared them well for understanding the complex negotiations between the 193 nations at the conference.

The professors and students said they were especially struck by the efforts of an alliance of small island nations that tried to raise awareness of their vulnerability to the effects of global warming and a rise in sea level.

The representatives of Tuvalu and other nations most vulnerable to climate change argued for a binding agreement throughout the summit, using procedural maneuvering, scientific facts and emotional pleas to make their legal argument, Clemmer said.

"They were looking for real results instead of a political agreement," she said.

The VLS delegation heard the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change describe the results of recent climate studies that show the impacts of global warming are worse than predicted just a few years ago. The conference concluded with an accord that called for monitoring and reporting progress toward pollution-reduction goals, but it didn't commit industrialized or developing nations to firm targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Nonetheless, the summit was unprecedented in many ways, including the largest number of heads of state, nongovernmental organizations, demonstrators and other participants at a climate change meeting.

The VLS students and professors said the experience provided a better understanding of complex negotiations and the role of diplomacy and law in the process.

Cergy Students All Pass New York Bar Exam for the Third Straight Year

Vermont Law School — 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST

For a third year running VLS's Cergy students all passed the New York Bar Exam on their first attempt.

Before Xavier Leroux came to Vermont Law School, he looked at South Royalton on Google maps and found the satellite image to be disconcertingly green compared to the urban gray of Paris, where he attended the University of Cergy-Pontoise.

"I thought, ‘Where are all the buildings?' he said, smiling. "It was nothing like Paris."

Leroux recently joined the growing number of Cergy students who received a Master of Laws (LLM) in American Legal Studies from the VLS International and Comparative Law programs before passing the bar exam in the United States.

The three Cergy LLM students who took the New York bar exam last July all passed, marking the third consecutive year that all of Vermont Law School's Cergy LLM students passed the New York bar. The Master of Laws in American Legal Studies is an advanced professional degree in law awarded to candidates who have already earned their first law degree from a jurisdiction outside the United States. The LLM prepares the returning lawyer or recent law graduate with the skills and knowledge required for transnational practice or other legal work requiring knowledge of multiple legal systems and competency in multiple languages.

Leroux, Cecile Michel and Emilie Dubreil, who graduated from VLS last spring, returned in January to be sworn in to the New York Bar Association in a ceremony in Albany, N.Y. They were joined by their Cergy and VLS classmate, Djenebou Ouattara, who received a LLM in Environmental Law.

Afterward, the four stopped in South Royalton to visit friends and faculty, including Professor Stephanie Farrior, director of the International and Comparative Law programs.

According to the New York State Bar Association, the number of foreign-educated candidates sitting for the exam continues to rise. Last July, 26 percent of the 11,532 candidates taking the exam were foreign-educated.

The pass rate was 88.2 percent for U.S.-educated first-time takers and 46.2 percent for foreign-educated first-time takers.

Farrior said the Cergy LLM graduates' 100 percent success rate at the New York bar exam is impressive.

"Special thanks go to Giuliana Robertson (assistant professor of law and director of the academic success program) for her guidance, training and encouragement of these students throughout the past year and to all the faculty and staff whose contributions led to their success," Farrior said.

Dubreil said studying at Vermont Law School enabled her to visit the United States and prepared her well to practice transnational law. She works at a Paris law firm and hopes to eventually practice in New York City.

"I loved my time at Vermont Law School, especially the close relationships with the professors and other students," she said.

Dubreil said VLS's partnership with Cergy allows the French students to adapt quickly to a foreign setting, although it was a challenge initially to adjust to the Socratic method and to speaking only English.

"Everyone went out of their way to make us welcome," she said.

Ouattara plans to get an LLM in American Legal Studies at New York University and to practice environmental and business law.

"VLS was very community-oriented and the students, faculty and staff are very helpful," she said. "It was easy to make friends."

Leroux came to Vermont Law School not only to prepare for a law career but to improve his English. Like his Cergy classmates, he hopes to practice law in the United States, France and other nations.

"Before coming here, I didn't realize how helpful everyone would be," he said. "It made all the difference."

Howard Dean to Deliver Vermont Law School Commencement Address

Vermont Law School — 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST

Former Vermont Governor and Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean will deliver Vermont Law School's 2010 commencement address.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, M.D., was announced Thursday as the speaker for Vermont Law School's 2010 graduation ceremony.

Dean, a national leader on environmental and health care issues, served as Vermont's governor from 1991 to 2003, making him the second longest-serving governor in Vermont's history.

Dean's selection as the VLS commencement speaker was made public at the Class 2010 rally by Sarah Buxton, 3L, who worked for Dean during his gubernatorial tenure and presidential campaign.

"Howard Dean has been a thought leader in Vermont, in the nation and in the world for 20 years," said VLS Dean Jeff Shields. "He was the first choice of our graduating class to be their commencement speaker and we're thrilled he's accepted."

Vermont Law School's graduation ceremony will be at 10 a.m., May 22 on the South Royalton Town Green.

Dean's political career started with a 1981 campaign to build a local bike path. In 1982 he was elected to the Vermont House and in 1986 he won a campaign for lieutenant governor. In 1991, while examining a patient, he got word that the governor had died and he immediately assumed the state's top elected post.

Dean was the first governor in the United States to sign civil unions legislation into law. He also expanded health care services for Vermonters and fought to protect the environment.

He became a leading 2004 presidential contender when he delivered a March 2003 speech criticizing Democrats for supporting the Iraq War. He led Democrats in early 2004 with a fundraising campaign that generated $25 million in small donations over the Internet.

Dean served as chairman of the Democratic Party from 2005 to 2009. He was lead strategist, spokesman and fundraiser for DNC and is credited with pioneering an energetic 50-state strategy that lifted Democrats to Congressional control in 2006 and 2008. He also helped propel support for the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries. He continues to be an influential leader in the movement to implement universal healthcare.

Dean has been a long-time leader on environmental issues. In 1982, his support for the Burlington bike path and his determination to protect the city's waterfront from aggressive development helped him win a seat in the Vermont State House. He fought to strengthen clean air and water standards, supported including environmental standards in free trade agreements, promoted the use of renewable energy sources, conserved thousands of acres of open spaces and worked to eliminate mercury release into the environment.

Perkins Urges VLS Students to Make a Difference

Vermont Law School — 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST

Perkins Urges Vermont Law School Students to Make a Difference

James Perkins Jr., the first black mayor of Selma, Ala., spoke at Vermont Law School's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.

James Perkins Jr., the first black mayor of Selma, Ala., marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Tuesday by urging Vermont Law School students, faculty and staff to dedicate themselves to a cause for social justice.

"Find yourself a reason, a cause, and make a difference," Perkins told more than 250 people in Chase Community Center. "There is a call to action in America" to combat racism, poverty and problems in health care, housing and other quality-of-life issues.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Day "is a day on, not a day off," he said.

Perkins, a Selma native, was among the first black students to enter Selma's A.G. Parrish High School in 1969 under mandatory desegregation. Shirley Jefferson, VLS associate dean for student affairs and diversity, became a classmate of Perkins in 1971 after the school was renamed Selma High School. Perkins and Jefferson became friends and student activists during their high school years.

"Who would have thought he would be elected mayor of Selma one day and I'd become associate dean here," Jefferson told the King Day audience. "We are living proof you can do anything."

The King Day celebration opened with a dedication to Professor Michael Mello, who died in November 2008, and the singing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the African American national anthem, led by Jefferson and Kendra Brown, 1L.

Sean Williams, 3L, president of the Black Law Students Association, told the audience that the United States has made strides toward equality, citing desegregation laws, Perkins' election as Selma's mayor and President Obama's election.

"In spite of these strides, we still have a journey ahead of us," he said.

VLS Dean Jeff Shields introduced Perkins, citing his "rich and proven record" in community service, government and business and recounting his rise to the top elected office in Selma, a symbol of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Selma's mayor at the time was Joe Smitherman, a segregationist who served 35 years despite allegations of racism, corruption and negligence. In 1984, Perkins was a successful information technology professional, but he became the campaign manager for the first serious black mayoral candidate in Selma in an effort to unseat Smitherman.

That effort failed as did Perkins' own mayoral campaigns in 1992 and 1996, but he prevailed in 2000 and was re-elected in 2004. Under his leadership, Selma added jobs, improved public education, housing and safety and adopted an environmental clean-up plan.

Before Perkins' took the podium, Jefferson, Brown and Professor Oliver Goodenough sang another musical selection, "O Freedom."

Perkins opened his remarks by citing the instinctive ability of birds, bees and other creatures to work together to improve their lot, an ability he said that human beings seem to lack.

He cited the "challenges and confusion and conflicts" that humans ceaselessly bring upon themselves rather than cooperating to improve their families and communities and to live in peace and prosperity.

"One would have thought we'd have figured it out by now," Perkins said.

Perkins said he, Jefferson and other black children in Selma in the 1960s didn't understand the significance of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

"We just wanted to go" to the local hamburger joint, the movie theater, the shoe store and other places and be treated equally, he said.

Perkins recounted his and Jefferson's civil rights actions in high school and his later mayoral campaigns in Selma, saying it took a community-wide effort to elect a black man to the city's highest post.

Perkins also recounted the history of racism in the United States, from the post-Reconstruction era when the first blacks were elected to U.S. Congress to later periods when no African Americans held federal elected positions to President Obama's historic election.

"Yes, we should celebrate our success, but we should remember the brutality of Bloody Sunday" on March 7, 1965, when police attacked peaceful civil rights marchers in Selma.

Perkins said he was uncertain if a conspiracy exists against black political candidates in America, but he warned against radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, the League of the South and others who promote "deceitful political talk."

BLSA President Williams said he was so moved by Perkins' words that he was considering going into community law or education law rather than entertainment law.

"His speech was amazing," Williams said. "It was awe inspiring."

CNN Names VLS Alumnus Hero of 2010

Vermont Law School — 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST

Wynona Ward ’98 is a victim turned fighter.

Sexually abused as a child, she has spent the past 12 years as a relentless legal advocate for battered women and children in rural Vermont.

Since she created the nonprofit group Have Justice Will Travel, her efforts have been nationally recognized by the media and legal profession. But Ward received additional attention on Jan. 8, 2010, when CNN selected her as its first “CNN Hero” of 2010.

“I think it’s wonderful to get the exposure for our program, but it’s even more important that people realize domestic violence is an epidemic and so many people need help,” Ward said. “It’s a society-wide problem, but we’re making progress in helping people to start their lives over.”

VLS alumnus Wynona Ward ’98 has been named Hero of 2010 by CNN.

Ward, 58, who grew up in poverty in rural Vermont where family violence was common, was working as a long-haul trucker when she decided to take her life in a different direction in 1996. She enrolled at VLS, was awarded a Schweitzer Fellowship, and went on to found Have Justice Will Travel after graduating in 1998. Since then, the organization has provided free legal and social support to more than 10,000 low-income women and children who are victims of domestic abuse.

Ward and her small staff visit victims of domestic violence in their homes, bridging the cultural, geographic and financial gaps that can separate victims and attorneys. Four-wheel drive is often needed to reach isolated clients.

“Our goal is to stop the generational cycle of abuse,” she said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Have Justice Will Travel depends on grants and donations, which have dropped off during the recession.

“Our contributions are in trouble this year because of the economy,” she said, “so every little bit helps.”

More information is available at www.havejusticewilltravel.org/

VLS Strengthens U.S.-China Partnership

Vermont Law School — 09 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST

Vermont Law School Dean and President Jeff Shields poses with CUPL Vice President Zhu Yong.

December 2009 was a busy month for Vermont Law School's U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law, whose team took a number of steps to strengthen its thriving relationship with the Asian nation.

On Dec. 7, VLS President and Dean Jeff Shields met with Vice President Zhu Yong of the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) to bolster academic collaboration between VLS and CUPL. A formal memorandum of understanding was signed by Dean Shields and CUPL President Huang Jin.

VLS also renewed its MOU with Sun Yat-sen University Law School for another three years. The MOU, which was signed Dec. 11, extends the general framework for cooperation between VLS and SYSU. The agreement is implemented on the VLS side through the VLS China partnership. Dean Jeff Shields signed the MOU for VLS and Dean Xu Zhongming signed it for SYSU Law School.

VLS also met with the National Development and Reform Commission Training Center on Dec. 9 to discuss joint training activities. The two partners agreed to sponsor training workshops on energy efficiency and environmental impact assessment issues faced by Chinese state-owned enterprises that extract natural resources abroad.

In addition, VLS hosted two events. Michael Dworkin, director of the VLS Institute for Energy and the Environment, and Regulatory Assistance Project Director David Moskovitz led a workshop on electric power resource planning, wholesale electric power markets reform and potential "smart-grid" developments at the State Electric Regulatory Commission. The Dec. 8 event included the directors and senior officials of six major departments of the agency.

On Dec. 9, VLS Professor David Mears, director of the VLS Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, led an environmental law clinic roundtable at CUPL's Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims. Faculty from CUPL, Renmin University Law School and Beijing Normal University Law School participated in the roundtable.

VLS China partnership staff members and Dean Shields also met with U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman to discuss VLS's activities and environmental governance challenges in China. Professor Tseming Yang, director of the China partnership, said climate change has become a dominant issue in U.S.-China relations, so the VLS team emphasized that China's efforts to combat pollution would be strengthened by addressing traditional concerns and bolstering the basic need for good governance and the rule of law.

In October, VLS received a $3 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to expand its U.S.-China partnership program over the next three years. The grant, which extended a $1.8 million USAID funding agreement in 2006, enables VLS to continue helping China to strengthen enforcement of its environmental and energy laws.

China's rapid growth in manufacturing has resulted in severe environmental problems, including the production of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming and pollution worldwide.

In 2006, VLS in collaboration with Sun Yat-sen University launched the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law in response to the lack of knowledge, skills, and academic infrastructure needed to address environmental and energy challenges in China through the rule of law.

Leaving Copenhagen: Reflections on COP15

Vermont Law School — 07 Jan 2010 14:25:56 EST

VLS student Anna Ellis shakes hands with Kenyan environmental and political activist Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai.

As one of six Vermont Law School students who traveled to Copenhagen last month to witness the international climate change negotiations, Ashley Santner brings back a slightly different perspective on the talks.

Santner is a dual degree student now studying at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, so she returned not to Vermont but to France, where she is explaining to her classmates there how things played out at the U.N.'s 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15).

"It is very useful to have the first-hand experience to share with French students," Santner, a 3L, said as she prepared to depart Copenhagen following the VLS group's two-week stay. "France and the E.U. have been waiting to see what the U.S. would do. All eyes have been on us, in a way."

Santner said her coursework prepared her well for understanding the negotiations. At Cergy, her class in environmental law has explored details of the Kyoto Protocol. (Her work at Cergy will result in a master's degree in French business and ethics law, with a specialization in energy and environment.)

Before she left VLS for her year in France, she studied climate change with Professor Patrick Parenteau, and last summer she worked in the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Congressional Affairs in Washington, D.C.

Highlights of her Copenhagen experience included sitting in the front row for Senator John Kerry's presentation. She also met EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and engaged in conversation with Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. deputy special envoy for climate change.

So what lesson did she bring back from her trip to Copenhagen?

"It's really a question of survival for the small island nations," said Santner. The VLS delegation witnessed first-hand the protests by members of the small island nation of Tuvalu, who were hoping to raise awareness of the nation's vulnerability to the affects of global warming and a rise in sea level. Tuvalu and other nations most vulnerable to climate change argued for a binding agreement throughout the summit.

While many of the media reports focused on the protests and pitfalls of the Copenhagen meeting, the VLS group—which included three faculty members—agreed that despite the logistical challenges that marred the event, the experience provided a better understanding of complex negotiations and the role of diplomacy and law in the process.

"I don't think there is any better learning experience than seeing things first-hand, in the context of international law," said Lillian Kortlandt, a 3L. In the end, Kortlandt wrote on the VLS blog that she was leaving Copenhagen "disappointed and exhausted," yet still feeling privileged to have witnessed the proceedings.

For Michael Coté, a MELP candidate, the highlight of Copenhagen came on December 8, when he attended a side event featuring Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

"I am a city planner and I study adaptation. For me, he was my rock star," Coté said. Pachauri offered an IPCC working group progress report while, according to Coté, "being pummeled" by the press with questions over a stolen email scandal that threatened to overshadow the Copenhagen talks.

Coté also found opportunities to connect with many international organizations that are focused on helping cities work towards sustainable development, which could prove valuable for his future plans.
"I am excited by the prospects of jobs. I made a lot of contacts," said Coté, who as an urban planner also left Copenhagen with a better understanding of the importance of crowd control.

By the second week of the talks, it became apparent that the Bella Center was simply not large enough (capacity: 15,000) to handle the more than 30,000 people who had reportedly been credentialed as observers for the COP15 talks. The result: Coté and others found themselves looking for other events in the crowded capital city as they joined the masses of people who were turned away from the Bella Center during Week 2.

"I can't imagine what it is like to organize something of this scale," he said. "This was a highly organized event that was just overshadowed by overbooking people."

Professor Teresa Clemmer, who began planning for the Copenhagen trip last spring, said she knew there would be a strong turnout given the growing interest in climate change, yet she was still surprised by the reality of the scene.

"We were expecting crowds in the streets and congestion, but I wasn't really expecting the conference itself to be so chaotic," she said. "The first week ran smoothly; the second week it all broke down."

Yet despite the difficulties, she said the early plenary sessions and side events provided students with a unique perspective on the international efforts.

VLS Copenhagen delegation with Stephen Porter of the Center for International Environmental Law.

"It was really interesting to have a front row seat to all these dramatic negotiations and activities," said Clemmer, who credited the students for working through many logistical details of the trip, including negotiating a contract with the homeowner from whom they rented for the two-week stay. The house was just a short bus ride and then a five-minute walk to the Bella Center.

In the end, Jessica Scott, a 3L, will remember Copenhagen for both the promise and the dashed hopes that the COP15 talks presented.

"A wonderful part of the experience for me was a sense of camaraderie and inspiration," she said, noting the efforts of the many nongovernmental organizations that remain committed to curbing the effects of climate change. "At the same time, it can be discouraging, the feeling that certain parties don't understand what a crisis it is."

One distinct memory will be witnessing the representatives of the tiny islands of Tuvalu make their legal arguments for demanding discussion of a binding agreement, only to have larger and stronger nations fight vehemently against such action.

"Being in school to be attorneys, it's good to see the role that legal arguments play in the process," she said.

News Feed

VLS Professor Advocates Radical Steps in Response to Gulf Oil Spill

EPA Minority Fellows Kick Off Environmental Law Outreach Program at VLS

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U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Effort to Remake Property Rights Law

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Dean Urges VLS Graduates to be Active Citizens

Paul Ferber Retires, Lauded as Innovative Scholar

Erin Woolley Scholarship Fund Sets Record for VLS Class Gifts

Kagan a "High-Risk, High-Return" Choice for Justice, Hanna Says

By Cheryl Hanna
Professor of Law, Vermont Law School

VLS Opens Campus Arboretum

VLS Starts Composting on Campus

Speth Calls for a Radical Overhaul of Government, Economy, Environmentalism

Same-Sex Marriage No Threat to Traditional Marriage, Law Professor Says

Global Warming Requires Changes in Legal Framework, VJEL Speaker Says

Vermont Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Lake Champlain Pollution Case

VLS Panelists Defend School’s Ban on Military Recruiting

Experts Promote Benefits of For-profit, Non-profit Hybrids

Panel Questions Safety, Finances of Vermont Yankee

California’s Smog Czar Touts Golden State’s Efforts to Create Sustainable Communities

Pulitzer-Prize Winning Writer Chris Hedges Blasts Corporate America, Celebrity Culture

Brown-Bag Insights on Copenhagen

Cergy Students All Pass New York Bar Exam for the Third Straight Year

Howard Dean to Deliver Vermont Law School Commencement Address

Perkins Urges VLS Students to Make a Difference

Perkins Urges Vermont Law School Students to Make a Difference

CNN Names VLS Alumnus Hero of 2010

VLS Strengthens U.S.-China Partnership

See Also

Leaving Copenhagen: Reflections on COP15

See Also

News Feed

VLS Professor Advocates Radical Steps in Response to Gulf Oil Spill

EPA Minority Fellows Kick Off Environmental Law Outreach Program at VLS

What’s Next for Public Lands in a Climate-Changed World?

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Effort to Remake Property Rights Law

California Expands Ocean Protections

Dean Urges VLS Graduates to be Active Citizens

Paul Ferber Retires, Lauded as Innovative Scholar

Erin Woolley Scholarship Fund Sets Record for VLS Class Gifts

Kagan a "High-Risk, High-Return" Choice for Justice, Hanna Says

By Cheryl HannaProfessor of Law, Vermont Law School

VLS Opens Campus Arboretum

VLS Starts Composting on Campus

Speth Calls for a Radical Overhaul of Government, Economy, Environmentalism

Same-Sex Marriage No Threat to Traditional Marriage, Law Professor Says

Global Warming Requires Changes in Legal Framework, VJEL Speaker Says

Vermont Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Lake Champlain Pollution Case

VLS Panelists Defend School’s Ban on Military Recruiting

Experts Promote Benefits of For-profit, Non-profit Hybrids

Panel Questions Safety, Finances of Vermont Yankee

California’s Smog Czar Touts Golden State’s Efforts to Create Sustainable Communities

Pulitzer-Prize Winning Writer Chris Hedges Blasts Corporate America, Celebrity Culture

Brown-Bag Insights on Copenhagen

Cergy Students All Pass New York Bar Exam for the Third Straight Year

Howard Dean to Deliver Vermont Law School Commencement Address

Perkins Urges VLS Students to Make a Difference

Perkins Urges Vermont Law School Students to Make a Difference

CNN Names VLS Alumnus Hero of 2010

VLS Strengthens U.S.-China Partnership

See Also

Leaving Copenhagen: Reflections on COP15

See Also

By Cheryl Hanna
Professor of Law, Vermont Law School