About us:
International public interest environmental law organization Environment-People-Law (EPL) was founded in 1994 with the aim to help in protecting environmental rights of citizens and organizations, to promote development of nature protection, environmental education, science and culture.
Our mission:
- rule of law for environmental protection
Our activity:
Advocacy:
- legal consultations for citizens and organizations in the sphere of environmental protection, protection of environmental rights;
- representation of interests of citizens and organizations before judicial bodies and other state authorities in environmental matters.
Law drafting:
- analysis of adopted laws and draft laws, development of proposals for legislative acts;
- participation of EPL experts in activities of law drafting working groups, in particular Working group of NGOs dealing with climate change, Public council of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine, Public council of State Administration of Environmental Protection in Lviv region.
Informational and analytical activity with the aim to promote standards of rule of law:
- preparing analytical articles, publications, collections, reference books;
- organizing conferences, seminars, meetings on legal protection of environment on the national and international level;
- holding trainings on environmental law for practical lawyers;
- publishing Environment-People-Law Journal (quarterly) devoted to environmental and legal issues;
- collecting and disseminating environmental and legal information;
- cooperating with other environmental and legal organizations, higher educational institutions;
- maintaining unique library containing more than 3 000 books on environmental and legal issues.
Legal education:
Environmental education forms an important part of EPL’s activity. EPL aims to familiarize students with modern academic discourse on hot environmental and legal issues and to help them form their own views on the interrelation between the man and environment, and their roles in preserving the environment through the law and in establishing rule of law. EPL environmental education includes the following:
- EPL offers a distance education course of environmental law for lawyers though the Internet and e-mail. For 2010, EPL plans to offer a special distance course devoted to hot environmental issues of Ukrainian and international environmental law. The goal of the course is for students to form skills for finding and working with applicable law, to master methods of legal analysis in applying international environmental law, to encourage professional legal culture, to teach means for clarification and conception of environmental and legal problems, and to stimulate personal commitment and empowerment to further environmental protection.
- EPL’s summer law school is an annual professional educational program for lawyers who desire a deeper knowledge of environmental law. The school is for 4th and 5th-year students of law faculties who will in the future work in fields related to environmental protection. The summer school aims to teach through guided independent study, through summary and analysis of environmental law, and through practical and clinical experience with EPL lawyers.
- EPL helps raise a new generation of environmental lawyers through environmental and legal internship for students of different educational institutions.
- EPL offers a clinical environmental law program for students of Law faculty of Ivan Franko National University.
