Appropriate Dispute Resolution/Environmental and Natural Resource Law

Environmental conflicts are now a prominent reality at all levels of society. Local governments, states, the federal government, and the world, strain under the increasing severity of issues ranging from the climate crisis to endangered animals and their habitat. Addressing these conflicts requires persistence, creativity, knowledge, and skill.

Oregon Law houses world-class programs in Environmental and Natural Resources Law (ENR) and Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR). Working together, these centers offer students a unique opportunity to learn and to effect positive change in the world.

Partnering to Protect 

As the field of dispute resolution continues to expand, the UO School of Law’s ADR Center has followed suit, partnering with the school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program (ENR) to give students a leg up in solving the environmental challenges facing our world.

Currently, environmental conflicts figure prominently at all levels of society, and governments strain under the increasing severity of issues ranging from the climate crisis to endangered animals and their habitats. There often seems to be no solution that satisfies all parties, and that is where the persistence, creativity, and knowledge of the ADR Center can come into play.

Thanks to the growing ADR Center-ENR partnership, Oregon law is now able to offer students unique courses, such as Environmental Conflict Resolution, which examines the use of collaborative approaches to conflicts over environmental and natural resources decision-making. The course examines the history of environmental decision- making, the legal context of environmental disputes, and the risks and benefits of collaborative and adversarial approaches to the challenging issues of development and environmental protection.

Drew Johnson, a conflict management consultant and recent graduate of both the UO School of Law and the center master’s program, says that though public interest environmental litigation is, and will remain, a cornerstone of environmental protection, environmental lawyers today must be prepared to advocate for the environment in settings other than the courtroom. “Environmental lawyers and advocates today need to understand how collaborative processes come about and how those processes impact the development and implementation of federal, state, and local environmental laws and policies,” Johnson notes. “If environmental lawyers do not understand environmental conflict resolution and other collaborative policy development processes, they miss a tremendous opportunity to fully represent their client’s interests or advocate for sound environmental policies.”

For more on this partnership, visit adr.uoregon.edu/enr/efforts.