Environmental and clean energy law are essential to promote healthy environments, people, and economies. Environmental law is the broad area that examines and regulates issues related to the environment, including water, hazardous waste, air quality, species protection, wetlands, biodiversity, agriculture, green initiatives, waste management, sustainability strategies, and alternative energy sources.

The Arctic

Abrupt climate change is producing Arctic warming and generating new shipping routes, business opportunities, and access to resources in ways that affect states, indigenous peoples, the Arctic environment, and beyond. This evolution creates opportunities for new policies and laws and a rapidly evolving legal landscape. It also yields job opportunities. Lawyers are having a substantial impact on this local, national, and international conversation.

The University of Maine School of Law is the ideal location for those eager to be involved with these cutting-edge issues of natural resource protection and development.

Certificate in Environmental and Oceans Law

The Certificate in Environmental and Oceans Law is designed to prepare law students for careers in important fields like environmental law and policy, energy law, global warming and renewable energy, oceans and coastal law, and many other related areas. Maine Law is one of only a few law schools in the country offering a certificate in this area of law.

Faculty

Maine Law faculty are on the forefront of research and policy in this rich and wide-ranging area of study. From our Arctic Summer Institute, to practicums in energy and environmental law, to nationally recognized scholarship around land use, renewable energy, and other sustainable development, our faculty are leading national discourse.

Experiential Education

Maine Law students have the opportunity to learn in the classroom and in the field. Recent student externships in environmental law have included:

  • Conservation Law Foundation
  • Natural Resources Division of the Maine Attorney General’s Office
  • Maine Department of Environmental Protection
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Department of Environmental Protection

Students may also serve on the Ocean and Coastal Law Journal, which is dedicated to facilitating discourse on legal issues related to domestic and international use of the sea and seashores.