Private Enforcement & Environmental Law: Civil Society Organizations, Public Interests, and Accountability
Online-Only Law School Event
1111 East 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637
Hosts: Cornell University, Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the University of Chicago Law School
Organizers: Hao (Hope) Zhuang, Cornell University; Joshua Macey, University of Chicago Law School; Steven Wolf, Cornell University
Litigation filed by private actors (including NGOs) that promotes public policy has been described by some as an important complement to government prosecution and critiqued by others for “impos[ing] crushing burdens on agencies, threaten[ing] to disrupt agency priorities, and thwart[ing] progress on key government initiatives” (Adelman and Glicksman for the American Bar Association, 2019).
This question has taken on global importance as, in 2015, China launched a new judicial policy, (Environmental) Public-interest Litigation [(E)PiL], which for the first time enabled civil society organizations to initiate public-interest litigation. EPiL granted Chinese non-governmental actors legal standing to confront private business and question the accountability of the state in court.
The Cornell University Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the University of Chicago the Center on Law and Finance will host an online workshop to advance our understanding of whether—and how—private enforcement has promoted environmental conservation goals in different legal contexts. The event will bring together academics and practitioners from US and China in order to advance comparison and synthesis across the two countries. Co-sponsored by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.
Workshop Agenda
March 12, 2021
7:15 am CT Opening Remarks
Josh Macey, Steven Wolf & Zhuang Hao (Presentation)
7:35 – 9:10 am CT
Panel 1 NGOs and Environmental Protection
Michael Gerrard (Columbia University)
Ge Feng (Friends of Nature, Vermont Law School)
Zhao Huiyu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
9:25 – 11:00 am CT
Panel 2 NGO Enforcement & Government-NGO Interactions
Zach Clopton (Northwestern University)
Xie Lei & Xu Lu (Shandong University, Lancaster University)
Alex Wang (University of California, Los Angeles)
BREAK
11:30 pm – 1:00 pm CT
Panel 3 Private Enforcement Outside the Courts
Michael Vandenberg (Vanderbilt University)
Madison Condon (Boston University)
Ren Xiangyi (University of Chicago)