Press Release: August 13 - Continuing Legal Education Course on “Rights of Nature” with Lawline-7/12/2021
Contact:
Thomas Linzey, Senior Legal Counsel, CDER
(509) 474-9761
tal@pa.net
Spokane, Washington– The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) announced today it has created a 1.5 hour continuing legal education (CLE) credit course focused on the emerging field of the rights of nature.
The course will be offered through the national legal education company, Lawline. Lawline provides accredited CLE courses throughout the United States. The company provides over 1,700 CLE courses, has 160,000 members, and hosts over 1,400 faculty members.
The course is titled “The Rights of Nature: Theory, Laws, and Emerging Jurisprudence.” It presents the legal theory behind the recognition of civil rights-type protections for nature and ecosystems; examines the first rights of nature laws in the United States passed at the municipal level in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida, and by tribal governments in Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, and Oklahoma; summarizes rights of nature jurisprudence in India, Colombia, and Bangladesh; and then features a panel discussion of the presenters focused on legal issues facing practitioners in this area of law.
The course will be presented on Friday, August 13th at 9:00 a.m. Pacific/12:00 p.m. Eastern, and will be available for 1.5 credit hours.
The course will be taught by lawyers from Washington State, New Mexico, and Florida who have backgrounds in rights of nature litigation, laws, and legal theory. The lead lecturer is Thomas Linzey, who is widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary rights of nature movement, a movement which has resulted in the adoption of over three dozen local rights of nature laws in the U.S. and in national laws and court decisions around the world. As part of that movement, Linzey was involved in the drafting of rights of nature provisions in the 2008 Ecuador Constitution. Linzey will be joined by attorneys Daniel Brannen (New Mexico) and Mel Martin (Florida).
Mari Margil, the Executive Director of CDER, stated, “We are excited to partner with Lawline to offer this course for lawyers across the United States. As this field of law grows, it is essential to make this body of knowledge available to lawyers working at the intersection of municipal law, constitutional law, and environmental law.”
Carla Elias-Nava, a Program Attorney with Lawline, declared, “We are pleased to be able to partner with the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights to make information about this new, emerging field of environmental law available to our members across the country. This course is emblematic of our continuing efforts to provide timely and relevant subject matter that covers a broad range of practice areas.”
The recorded CLE course will be available following the live course taught on August 13, 2021. Registration for the live course on Lawline can be completed at this link: https://www.lawline.com/course/the-rights-of-nature-theory-law-and-emerging-jurisprudence.
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