College of Law

On March 9, 2012 Professor Patrick C. McGinley, Charles H. Haden II Professor of Law will make a presentation on environmental justice and sustainable development during a symposium at the University of Missouri School of Law, Columbia, Missouri.

The symposium, entitled “Environmental Justice Issues in Sustainable Development,” explores the tension between the desire to promote environmental justice through renewable energy and sustainable development strategies, and the environmental justice concerns that such development itself can sometimes raise.

Professor McGinley is a nationally recognized expert on environmental law and one of the earliest legal scholars to address the topic of environmental justice as the Chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Environmental Law Section. At the AALS Annual Meeting in 1993, Professor McGinley organized and chaired the first national discussion of environmental justice among legal scholars.

Professor McGinley has frequently spoken on environmental justice issues and his scholarship has often focused on that topic. Professor McGinley’s article From Pick and Shovel to Mountaintop Removal: Environmental Injustice in the Appalachian Coalfields was recognized by his peers as one of the five leading scholarly environmental law articles published in 2004.

Professor McGinley will join a distinguished group of legal scholars who will present at the symposium. Among the presenters are members of the law faculties of The University of Kansas, Columbia University, Widener University, and The University of New Mexico. Professor McGinley will publish an article in the University of Missouri School of Law’s Journal of Environmental and Sustainability Law based upon his symposium presentation.

The symposium organizers recognize that “renewable energy and sustainable development strategies are increasingly viewed as valuable tools for addressing climate change [and] help to protect vulnerable groups across the globe from flooding, famine and other possible catastrophes.” “At the same time, renewable energy and sustainable development themselves can sometimes raise environmental justice issues because of their potential adverse impacts on neighboring residents or certain socioeconomic groups.”

For more information on the University of Missouri School of Law Symposium see: http://law.missouri.edu/faculty/symposium/jesl2012/index.html