What We Do

ELAW provides legal, scientific, and organizational expertise to build the capacity of public interest lawyers and their organizations to be more effective.

ELAW brings together a global community of advocates in more than 80 countries who offer each other solidarity, mutual assistance, and inspiration.

Law

The Law Team collaborates with lawyers protecting communities and the environment. ELAW attorneys provide high-quality legal support to help partners bring enforcement actions, critique proposed statutes, advance policies, and replicate model laws. The Team uses its global vantage point to identify emerging legal issues, advance needed research, share resources, and create spaces for collaboration among partners.

Science

The Science Team provides high-quality, in-depth scientific assistance to ELAW partners. Support includes critiquing environmental impact assessments, submitting expert testimony to courts, helping partners educate clients and communities about technical matters, developing systems to monitor environmental conditions, recommending cleaner alternatives to proposed projects, and facilitating engagement between local scientists and local lawyers.

Resources for advocates

ELAW contracted with economic analyst, Ernie Niemi, to collaborate with partners in Jamaica on a publication revealing the impacts of mining operations that have devastated Jamaican communities and landscapes since the 1950s.

Economics

ELAW provides information about the true, comprehensive economic impacts of proposed projects to our lawyer partners so communities can make informed decisions about proposed developments. ELAW helps lawyers identify subsidies and rebut superficial economic arguments that developers and governments put forth to rationalize destructive projects.

Nurturing the Network

ELAW provides Fellowships and other opportunities to its partners, to help them build skills and connect with allies.

ELAW is a catalyst and relationship builder. We coordinate a global network of advocates who share expertise and inspiration.

Defending Defenders

ELAW helps environmental lawyers improve their security so they can work without fear. When our partners are targeted, we act quickly to help defend and protect them.  We connect them to resources they need to strengthen their resiliency and deter threats. By helping our partners stay safe, we help them build on their great work defending human rights and the environment.

ELAW is a lifeline for grassroots advocates around the world.

– Eduardo Mosqueda Sánchez, Mexico

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