Horizons Fall 2014

20 HORIZONS The Coastal Cleanup coincided with World Oceans Day, but the environment is front and center at NSU every day. Mother Nature is studied, researched, and rallied for in the university’s labo- ratories and classrooms; on campus; in study abroad programs; in community efforts; and even in art exhibits at the Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center. With NSU’s geographic location, myriad opportunities exist for students and faculty members to become immersed in environmental issues. “NSU is deeply committed to protecting and restoring the environment, as well as educating the public on conservation. NSU researchers are working to unlock secrets of our oceans and marine life while instilling that passion for environmentalism and conservation in the next generation of scientists and researchers,” said George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D., president and CEO of the university. Prime location NSU’s Shepard Broad Law Center is at the center of this hot-button concern. “Many of the cases worked on by students in our clinical program have involved the Everglades and the Florida Keys,” said Joel Mintz, J.D., LL.M., J.S.D., a renowned author on environmental law issues and professor of environ- mental law at NSU’s Shepard Broad Law Center. “The Ever- glades is a truly remarkable, precious natural resource. It is recognized as such, nationally and internationally. It is also seriously threatened. Our proximity to the ‘River of Grass,’ as it was termed by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, and to the Florida Keys, which are also fragile and environmentally endangered, provides great opportunities for budding envi- ronmental lawyers to learn their craft.” Mintz said that student interest in pursuing environmental law as a career has “continued at a steady level for quite a few years. Many students understand that their own futures—and the quality of life of their children and grandchildren—depend on sensible environmental protection and prudent conserva- tion of natural resources in a world in which human popula- tion continues to grow rapidly.” Mintz and Richard Grosso, J.D., the Law Center’s clinic director, founded NSU’s Environmental and Land Use Law Clinic. Mintz explains that the clinic begins with three weeks of “very intensive” in-house training, which prepares students for their clinical experience. For the remainder of the term, he said, the students have the opportunity for either an externship or an internship. “For an externship, students work on pro bono environmental or land-use cases under the supervision of an attorney—who has been preapproved by the clinic director—in a government office, a private firm, or an environmental public interest law firm,” Mintz said. Similarly, during the internships, students work on pro bono environmental or land-use cases under the supervision of the clinic director. Those students may work with com- munity citizens’ organizations, for instance, which Mintz said provide valuable hands-on experience in environmental and land-use law. “A good number of our students obtained their first legal job after graduation as a direct result of their work in the clinic,” said Mintz. A relatively new study abroad program, according to Cath- erine Arcabascio, J.D., associate dean for international pro- grams and professor of law, uses case studies from the Czech Republic to teach law students about the environment and how it impacts human rights. In a partnership between NSU and Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, the oldest university in Central Europe, law students attend classes at Charles University where they can earn an LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree in International Human Rights and Protection of Environment. “It’s an interesting program because it takes in the environ- ment as it concerns human rights, such as the basic right for access to water, which is a big issue around the world. Students are learning not only about environmental law, but human rights issues, as well. Charles University is an interesting place for them to study, too, as it relates to Eastern European his- tory,” said Arcabascio. Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences professor Paul Baldauf, far right, leads students in testing water on the main campus.