Public Interest Environmental Law Conference

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

This article may not meet the general notability guideline or one of the following specific guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: Biographies, Books, Companies, Fiction, Music, Neologisms, Numbers, Web content, or several proposals for new guidelines. If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand or rewrite the article to establish its notability. The best way to address this concern is to reference published, third-party sources about the subject. If notability cannot be established, the article is more likely to be considered for redirection, merge or ultimately deletion, per Wikipedia:Guide to deletion.
This article has been tagged since April 2008.

The Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) is held annually in early March at the University of Oregon Law School in Eugene, Oregon, United States. The conference is a gathering of environmental activists, advocates, and students from across the United States and the world.

PIELC is organized and hosted by the students involved in the environmental law society "Land Air Water" (LAW). Land Air Water is a student group at the University of Oregon School of Law. It is co-sponsored by Friends of Land Air Water, a University of Oregon/Land Air Water alumni group that helps advise the student organizers.

Typically the conference has six to ten internationally recognized keynote addresses, and over 120 panels. The conference has been held since 1983 and will celebrate the 25th annual conference in 2007.

The conference is held on the first weekend in March. Early panels start Thursday afternoon, and the official opening is Thursday evening. It closes with a final address Sunday at noon. Typically the conference has around 2,000 attendees.

The content of the conference is aimed at professional environmental activists (i.e. people that work in non-profit public interest organizations such as the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, and the Oregon Natural Desert Association) and public interest environmental attorneys (e.g. Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council, and private public interest attorneys). CLE credits are available.

The conference is also of interest to students of environmental law and environmental studies, and each year it hosts groups from around a dozen different schools.

The conference is unapologetically pro-public interest, and pro-environment. It does not attempt to persuade the general public that environmental issues matter. It is a forum for the people who are actively enforcing environmental law, and promoting environmental values to talk among themselves, and share experiences, strategies, and news.