UF Environmental Moot Court Team Success

The University of Florida's Environmental Moot Court Team reached the semi-finals of the National Environmental Moot Court Competition, held in White Plains, New York last month. Team members Nick Beninate, Valerie Brennan, and Jessica Hovanec turned in outstanding performances. In the three preliminary rounds, Valerie was selected best oralist twice and Jessica was selected best oralist once. Best oralists are not selected in the quarter-and semi-final rounds, but team coach Ryan Baya reported that Nick Beninate excelled in the quarter-finals.

Of the 75 teams competing from law schools around the country, 9 reached the semi-finals and 3 advanced to the finals. In the last 5 years, UF has advanced to the semi-finals twice and the quarter-finals once.

UF’s participation in the annual national competition is made possible by the Section’s $1000 grant, available to all law schools in the state to support either a moot court team or a journal. This year’s competition problem focused on the definition of point source under the Clean Water Act, whether the citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act permitted enforcement against non-point sources for water quality violations, the right to contribution under CERCLA, and preemption of federal and state public nuisance common law claims.

Twelfth Annual Public Interest Environmental Conference

As this newsletter went to press, the annual PIEC was fast approaching, organized by UF law students in conjunction with the Public Interest Committee of the Section. This year’s conference scheduled for March 8-11 has the most expansive and diverse program ever, including: a special presentation by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Wed. March 8, co-sponsored by UF Accent; an interdisciplinary track focused on children’s literature, education, and the environment, organized by the UF Center for Children’s Literature and Culture; and participation by students from the National Association of Environmental Law Societies, coming from as far as Hawaii and Vermont. Richard Louv, noted author of the book Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder is scheduled to speak at the conference kick-off reception on Thursday, and Philippe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau, is slated to speak at the keynote banquet on Friday.

UF Environmental Speaker Series and Capstone Colloquium

Two more speakers will be visiting UF as part of this spring’s Environmental Speakers Series: Sarah Krakoff, an expert on Indian Law from the University of Colorado, will speak on March 23, and James Rasband, from Brigham Young University, whose research has challenged the premises of extensive federal land ownership, will speak on Thursday March 30. Both presentations will be from 3-5 pm in the Faculty Dining Room in Bruton-Geer Hall.

The Environmental Speaker Series is supported by the Environmental and Land Use Law Section, Hopping Green & Sams P.A., and Lewis Longman & Walker P.A. This support enables UF to bring in nationally recognized scholars to speak on current environmental and land use law topics. Students in UF’s ELUL Certificate Program and UF faculty participate in the seminar with the speaker as part of their Environmental Capstone Colloquium, and section members are invited to attend. Because space is limited, please contact us at elulp@law.ufl.edu to reserve a seat if you plan to attend either or both presentations.