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Explore Environmental Law at Harvard School

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Course Highlights

Harvard Law School offers a diverse range of courses and programs related to all aspects of environmental law. Below are courses taught by Clinic and EELP faculty and staff.

Environmental Law with Professor Richard Lazarus

This course updates and overhauls the classic environmental law survey course in response to the extraordinary challenges environmental law faces today: climate change, the Roberts Court, a deadlocked Congress, and a series of whipsawing presidencies capped off by the return of Donald Trump in 2025. The first part of the course surveys the emergence and subsequent evolution of modern environmental law in the United States and highlights the fundamental reasons why environmental lawmaking is inherently so hard to make. The second part considers the many ways in which the constitutional underpinnings of environmental law are being questioned by a series of recent and anticipated cases before the United States Supreme Court, with profound implications for the ability of both national and state governments to address pressing environmental issues in a timely manner.

Administrative Law with Professor Jody Freeman

This course concerns the law governing federal administrative agencies, and related matters of policy and theory. Using the material covered in the first-year Legislation and Regulation course as a foundation, this class will cover a variety of more advanced topics, including the structure and function of administrative agencies; the role of agencies versus courts in interpreting statutes and regulations; the legal framework governing administrative adjudication as opposed to regulation; the president’s power to supervise the executive branch, including policies regarding the civil service; and the role of private actors in the administrative process.

Environmental Law and Policy Clinic with Andrew Mergen

Most clinical work is done on HLS campus; some placements are available at externship locations (government agencies and nonprofits). The Clinic Director will assign students to in-Clinic projects after considering student interests, experience, and client needs. The Director is also available to advise on potential external placements and provide application support. Students interested in external placements are encouraged to contact the Clinic team as soon as possible upon enrollment; some external placements have application deadlines that do not align with the semester schedule and must be secured well in advance.

Environmental Legislation and Regulation Lab with Andrew Mergen and Carrie Jenks

Federal environmental law is governed by a host of statutes enacted between the 1970s and 1990. These statutes are challenged by the dramatic and expanding scope of the climate crisis, the proliferation of toxics and plastics, and the biodiversity crisis. As Congress has struggled legislatively, some states have pursued innovative environmental legislation. This lab course introduces students to the legislative and regulatory drafting skill set. Competent legislative drafting is key to the future of federal and state environmental law. Students will be provided transportation to and from Washington, D.C., as well as housing, for this one-week lab.

Creating Electricity in the U.S.: Exploring the Tradeoffs with Ari Peskoe

This reading group explores historic and ongoing legal and policy debates about the fuels that power the US electric system. We will begin with efforts by the federal government to construct mega-dams in the first half of the twentieth century and continue to current controversies about rooftop solar. The fuels that generate electricity have implications for economic growth, local environmental quality, and greenhouse gas emissions. To provide context, we will read about the utility industry’s business model, the electric system’s operations, and the pros and cons of various energy sources. We will discuss how the evolution of the electric power industry intersects with debates about the role of government in our economy and question the balance between the benefits of cheap power and the burdens faced by communities across the country that host energy infrastructure.

Natural Resources Law with Andrew Mergen

This course is a survey of federal natural resources law with a particular emphasis on how courts resolve disputes in this area. Emphasis will be placed on ongoing legal disputes, including natural resources cases in the Supreme Court and the courts of appeals. The course will start with a review of the historical, constitutional, and administrative law underpinnings of modern day natural resources law. The remainder of the course will focus on the major federal natural resources statutes with an initial examination of two of the most fundamental and transformational statutes of modern natural resources law: the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act.

Environmental Justice with Patrice Simms

Environmental justice has taken center stage as a social, political, and legal issue in recent years, and one cannot fully understand environmental law and policy, or the contemporary environmental movement, without a meaningful appreciation of the history, goals, and principles of environmental justice. Emerging at the intersection of environment and civil rights, the environmental justice movement is a response to the lived experience of people of color, low in come, and other marginalized communities, and an indictment of the many ways that race, class, language, and national origin determines environmental burdens and affects people’s access to environmental decision-making. This course will explore the history of the environmental justice movement in the United States, its connection to the long history of racism, classism, and other forms of discrimination in America, key features of modern environmental justice advocacy, and the laws and policies that both helped to created (and perpetuate) environmental inequity and that seek to remedy environmental injustice.

Environmental Law after the Biden Administration and During the Trump (2.0) Administration with Professor Richard Lazarus

This seminar will explore the shorter and potential longer-term impact of these whiplashing presidential administrations on constitutional law and environmental law, broadly defined to include pollution control, energy, and natural resources laws, with a particular focus on climate change law and environmental justice. Students will review and discuss evolutionary trends in environmental law from the beginnings of the 1970s through President Trump’s first year back in office. The seminar will extend to consideration of the portent for environmental law of the Supreme Court’s changing membership since 2019.

Water Law with Robert Anderson

Course emphasis is on western water law. It includes the origin, development, and current status of prior appropriation and riparian water law systems; the public trust doctrine; federal/state relations in water use regulation and delivery; and interstate allocations though compacts and equitable apportionment. Indian and other federally reserved water rights are also covered.

Visit the Harvard Law School website to learn more about all environmental law and policy-related faculty, courses, clinics, and research programs at HLS.

Student Organizations

HLS Environmental Law Society

The Harvard Environmental Law Society (ELS) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization directed and staffed by students at Harvard Law School. ELS was founded in 1970 by three Harvard Law students who perceived a pressing need for the Law School, and the law in general, to respond more effectively to the nation’s environmental problems.

Students standing ouside next to a pond, leaves on the trees surronging the pond are starting to change colors.

Harvard Environmental Law Review

The Harvard Environmental Law Review (HELR) has been published semi-annually by Harvard Law School students since 1976. HELR publishes scholarship that significantly advances the field of environmental law, including such areas as environmental justice; green infrastructure; energy; climate change; noise regulation; land use and property rights; toxic substances control; wildlife; natural resources; science and technology control; and workplace pollution.

Visit the Harvard Law School website to learn more about student organizations and student-run journals at HLS.

Harvard Fellowships

T.A. Barron Fellowships for Summer Work in Public Interest Environmental Law

Applications due Mar. 27, 2026

Five fellowships of up to $9,500 each to Harvard Law School students working in the public interest environmental law field during the summer of 2026. Applicants should be students who are returning to HLS in the fall of 2026. Experience with environmental law is not a requirement for the fellowship, and those new to the field are encouraged to apply. Applicants should first secure their summer position and then apply for the fellowship and complete the SPIF application along with the Employer Response Form.

Learn more and apply

2026-2027 Clinical Fellow, Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic

Review process begins Feb. 2026 Posted Jan, 13, 2026

The Clinical Fellow works with the Clinic Director and Clinical Instructor on a broad array of environmental, energy, and natural resource cases and projects and assist with the supervision of clinic students. The Fellow’s work will involve a mix of litigation, administrative advocacy, policy work, legislative drafting, and client advising. Required qualifications: J.D. earned within the past three years. Expected start date: July/August 2026.

Learn more and apply

Salata Institute Visiting Scholars Program

Applications are accepted throughout the year on a rolling basis.

The Salata Institute Visiting Scholar Program accepts exceptional academics working on climate change and sustainability for the purpose of supporting their scholarship or professional development. Visiting Scholars, in turn, enrich Harvard University’s community of scholars and scientists who are working on these issues. The program accepts applications on a rolling basis from academics, who are normally on sabbatical from their home institutions. These are residential, non-stipendiary appointments. All Visiting Scholars must be sponsored by a Salata Institute Faculty Affiliate. The Salata Institute hosts Visiting Scholars for one or two consecutive terms per academic year and provides office space and administrative support.

Learn more and apply

EELP 2026-2027 Fellowship

Closed

The Environmental & Energy Law Program (EELP) fellowship is a full-time, in-person position in Cambridge, Mass. The Fellow provides legal research and analysis on a range of current issues in environmental and energy law. The Fellow may also have the opportunity to develop new projects, both independently and collaboratively with EELP colleagues, to provide rigorous legal analysis to advance deep decarbonization and protect public health and welfare. The application process for the 2027-2028 academic year begins in the fall.

NRDC Fellowship for HLS Students or Recent Graduates

The application process for fall 2025 is closed.

The Beagle/HLS Fellowship at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a position with NRDC’s Litigation Team open to Harvard Law School (HLS) students and recent alumni. The Fellow will join NRDC’s Litigation Team, a group of approximately 40 lawyers, paralegals, and operations staff. The Beagle/HLS Fellowship is open to graduating Harvard Law School students or recent alumni who graduated in 2023 or later. Applicants must be available to start work in fall 2026.

Harvard Climate Internship Program

The 2026 deadlines for applications will be posted in spring 2026.

The Harvard Climate Internship Program is open to any Harvard graduate student who will return to campus for at least one semester after completion of the grant. Students are responsible for securing their own climate-related internship with a public, private, or non-profit organization.