Department of Natural Resources and the Environment
Conferences and Workshops
Private Enforcement & Environmental Law: Civil Society Organizations, Public Interests, and Accountability
Public Online workshop
08:15 AM – 2:45 PM EST
Friday, March 12, 2021
Hosted by:
Cornell University, Department of Natural Resources and Environment
University of Chicago, Center on Law and Finance
Organizers:
Hao (Hope) Zhuang , Cornell University, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, hz64@cornell.edu
Steven A. Wolf, Cornell University, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, saw44@cornell.edu
Josh Macey, University of Chicago Law School, jmacey@uchicago.edu
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.