Environmental Justice Clinics: Visible Models of Justice

This article examines and evaluates the contributions of environmental justice law clinics to pedagogy, law reform and legal services. The author bases her observations and conclusions on her experiences at Georgetown University Law Center where she teaches a course in environmental equity and supervises students in an environmental justice clinic. Part II summarizes current knowledge about the incidences and causes of environmental inequity and the legal barriers to achieving environmental justice. This discussion highlights the distinctive aspects of environmental justice issues which influence the design of environmental justice clinical programs. Part III presents general information on legal clinical programs and discusses David Barnhizer\u27s pedagogical goals for clinical instruction in order to provide a normative framework for evaluating environmental justice clinical programs. Part IV describes Georgetown University Law Center\u27s environmental justice clinical program--its origins, goals and structure. This part addresses such issues as funding, staffing and continuity between semesters, as well as case selection, student training and projects. This part also discusses some of the problems encountered in designing Georgetown\u27s environmental justice clinical program and how they have been resolved, and examines comparative examples drawn from the experiences of other environmental justice clinics. The intent is to provide guidance for schools contemplating similar programs. Part V first describes the specific projects that the Georgetown clinic has undertaken and how these confront the problems of environmental injustice discussed in Part II, and then analyzes the extent to which Georgetown\u27s program, and environmental justice clinics in general, meet the clinical educational goals set forth in Part III. Because the design differences between Georgetown\u27s program and other environmental justice clinics are not significant in this context, this Part uses the Georgetown program as an analog for others. Part VI concludes with a brief discussion of the lessons learned from the clinical experience at Georgetown