As part of the 2026 Hot Topics in Environmental Law lecture series, Professor Jared Carter JD’09, Vermont Law and Graduate School, and Heather Murray, Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic, discuss how defamation and related claims, often constituting Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP), have recently been used as a sword to attempt to silence environmental advocacy organizations and journalists, and the potential defenses provided by state anti-SLAPP laws.

Christophe Courchesne, director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law and Graduate School, speaks with Alejandro Camacho, professor of law at UCLA School of Law. Camacho’s latest book with Brigham Daniels, Lessons for a Warming Planet: A Vital History of US Environmental Law, traces the history of U.S. environmental law from colonization to the present, examining five distinct areas, highlighting the tension between idealists and pragmatists, and offering lessons for contemporary challenges like climate change.

Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice—the world’s largest nonprofit public interest environmental law organization—gives an inspiring address to Vermont Law and Graduate School graduates and audience members alike for VLGS’s 50th commencement.

On the latest episode, Pat Parenteau, Professor of Law Emeritus and Senior Fellow for Climate Policy at the Environmental Law Center, joins Rachel Westrate and Terrence Neal, Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Parenteau Climate Action Fellows, to discuss EPA's international role, past and present. Both Rachel and Terrence come to VLGS from EPA, where they worked on international law and policy issues during the Biden Administration and the early days of the second Trump Administration. Listen as they discuss the EPA's longtime role in international environmental cooperation, the current Administration's unprecedented disengagement from international agreements and forums, and the prospects for law students to launch careers in international environmental law.

Guest, Chandra Taylor-Sawyer, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) and SELC's Environmental Justice Initiative leader, produced "Plantations to Pollution: Black Communities, Legacy Pollution, and the Path Forward," a multimedia storytelling series following the throughline from slavery to pollution—revealing how Black communities have borne environmental injustices for generations and continue to demand the healthy present and future they deserve. Plantations to Pollution: Black Communities, Legacy Pollution, and the Path Forward - a multimedia storytelling series following the throughline from slavery to pollution—revealing how Black communities have borne environmental injustices for generations and continue to demand the healthy present and future they deserve. https://plantationstopollution.selc.org/ https://www.selc.org/staff/chandra-taylor/

Natural and man-made disasters are an important and increasingly relevant topic for us all. World-renowned expert Dr. Kirsten Bookmiller, professor in the Department of Government, Law, and International Relations and a faculty associate with the Center for Disaster Research and Education at Millersville University, discusses the complex impact of disasters on every level, including human rights, migration, and displacement, and the need for robust interdisciplinary frameworks for disaster law.

As part of the 2025 Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, Sean Donahue, partner at Donahue, Goldberg & Herzog, and Bob Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program and the Robert F. Stanton Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, discuss recent Supreme Court decisions and the state of environmental law during the second Trump administration.

As part of our Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, Sharmila Murthy, Northeastern University School of Law, gives an impactful Hot Topics lecture, “Sustaining Environmental Justice,” that dovetails with our last episode (28), "Advancing Environmental Justice in a Chaotic Time," by Marianne Engelman Lado, New York University School of Law and Vermont Law and Graduate School Distinguished Environmental Law Summer Scholar.

As part of our Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, Marianne Engelman Lado, New York University School of Law and Vermont Law and Graduate School Distinguished Environmental Law Summer Scholar, talks about how to advance environmental justice in a chaotic time.

Julia Olson, co-executive director and chief legal counsel of Our Children's Trust, a nonprofit law firm she founded in 2010 to empower young people to secure their climate rights, delivered an empowering environmental honorary degree lecture at Vermont Law and Graduate School.