The Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic simultaneously helps train the next generation of social justice-oriented environmental lawyers while working with non-governmental groups, communities, municipalities, First Nations and law offices to advance environmental justice and sustainability in Canada.
The pursuit of environmental justice mobilizes environmental, civil rights, anti-racist, anti-poverty, aboriginal rights and gender equality movements to challenge the unequal distribution of environmental burdens and benefits in society. Sustainability involves the simultaneous pursuit of ecological integrity, social equity and economic prosperity within the biophysical constraints of local and planetary ecosystems.
Our dual focus on remedying environmental injustice and promoting sustainability makes us unique among law school clinical programs in Canada.
This mandate encompasses a broad range of subjects including biodiversity, energy, water, food, climate change, pollution, resource extraction, land use planning, human rights, green technology, corporate social responsibility, social enterprise, toxic torts, and regulatory compliance.
We do not have a public storefront. We select files via proposals from external legal service organizations or on our own initiative. We issue calls for proposals periodically, usually in early summer in preparation for the following academic year.
Student Role
Our experiential education program is part of the Osgoode Hall Law School JD program. In this two-term, 15-credit clinical program, Osgoode JD students explore the theory and practice of public interest environmental law by working on Clinic files. We use a "virtual placement" model: the students are placed virtually with lawyers and organizations located across the country, but conduct their work at Osgoode. This model allows students to build contacts and relationships well beyond the Toronto area, where Osgoode is located. In addition to their clinical file work (9 credits), students attend an academic seminar (3 credits) and complete a research project (3 credits) that complements but does not duplicate their clinical work. To maximize the public benefit of our work, students' research projects are publicized on our blog in a way that does not compromise the confidentiality of the clinical files.
Student work in the Clinic includes but is not limited to a 15-20 hours/week placement at a Legal Organization partnered with the Clinic as well as contributions to a Common Clinic Project with other Clinic students on a legal question posed by a community organization.
If you are an interested student please click here for more information.
Working with Legal Organizations
We partner with lawyers across Canada who work in the public interest to advance environmental justice and sustainability. Our partners include environmental law non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and legal aid clinics; in-house or external counsel to environmental or human rights groups, municipal governments, First Nations, or social enterprises; and lawyers in private practice who engage in public interest-oriented legal work on a pro-bono or reduced-fee basis. A list of our current and previous partners can be found here.
We help these public interest-oriented lawyers and law offices to leverage their limited resources and enhance their positive impacts on environmental justice and sustainability by enlisting the help of capable, motivated JD students who work under the supervision of the external lawyer(s) and Osgoode law professors.
The files we work on can be local, provincial, national or even international in scope. Within this broad scope, we choose files for their likely lasting positive impact on environmental justice and sustainability. We do a variety of legal work including litigation before courts and tribunals, complaints to environmental watchdogs, law reform proposals, legislative drafting, freedom of information requests, community legal organizing, legal advice regarding sustainable or social enterprise, and public legal education. In the process, the students gain invaluable exposure to the theory and practice of public interest environmental law.
If you are a legal organization interested in partnering with us please click here for more information.
Working with Community Organizations
The EJ&S Clinic students participate in "Common Clinic Projects" (CCPs), proposed by external client organizations that are researching cutting edge legal questions. Students work collectively to research legal questions, facilitate guest speakers, and write a research paper or design a research project.
Current CCP Partners include the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, Neskantaga First Nation, and the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust.
If you are a community organization interested in proposing a CCP please click here for more information.
Contact Us
If you would like to speak directly with us our contact information can be found here.
Donate
The Clinic is a not-for-profit undertaking. We rely on donations to survive.
If you are interested in supporting our work financially, please click here.
