Deborah Curran is an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria in the Faculty of Law and School of Environmental Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences), and the Executive Director of the Environmental Law Centre.
The Environmental Law Centre (ELC) is mandated to train our next environmental lawyers. The ELC is non-profit and is embedded into the Law School at UVic. The group takes applications for 12 projects each year to undertake practical legal projects for assistance to organizations that need legal and environmental help. The ELC began 25 years ago and is the oldest clinic in Canada and is 100% externally funded. Clients served are primarily non-profit, first nations and community groups or individuals.
Deborah and her team have to legally sign off and be responsible for all decisions coming from the students, who are primarily 2nd year law students and operating as a part of a graded course.
Some example projects include:
- Coastal First Nations Grizzly protections ban and to understand what it means legally to those in the areas
- Unanimously accepted updated BC law for managing plastics in the ocean
- 2014-2016 updated Water Sustainability Act
You can learn more at www.elc.uvic.ca