Founded 1969 President Scott Fulton | Location Washington, DC Website www.eli.org | |
Slogan Making the law work for people, places, and the planet. |
The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) is a non-profit, non-partisan think-and-do tank, seeking to effect change through its work as an environmental law educator, convener, publisher, and research engine. ELI's primary audience includes legal practitioners, business leaders, land managers, land use planners, environmentalists, journalists, and lawmakers. The Institute also convenes conferences to promote the exchange of ideas; holds seminars to educate legal practitioners and business leaders; and publishes original research, both as monographs and in its periodicals, the Environmental Law Reporter and The Environmental Forum.
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Vision and mission
ELI’s Vision is “a healthy environment, prosperous economies, and vibrant communities founded on the rule of law.”
ELI’s Mission is to foster innovative, just, and practical law and policy solutions to enable leaders across borders and sectors to make environmental, economic, and social progress. It
Structure
Research & Policy staff: A portion of ELI’s researchers are attorneys with specialties in various aspects of environmental law. Other researchers include scientists, policy analysts, and visiting scholars from outside the United States.
Associates: The ELI Associates Program is the preeminent network for current and future leaders in the environmental law and policy profession. Members from all sectors gain access to basic training through ELI’s respected boot camps, timely analysis of issues in ELI’s policy and law journals and its website, sophisticated seminars with experts debating pressing topics from diverse perspectives, and unmatched opportunities to connect with public officials, friends and peers at events such as the annual ELI Award Dinner. The program offers members benefits and contacts..
ELI associates pay an annual subscription fee. Unlike other member-based organizations, ELI does not represent its associates or try to promote their activities. Associates receive ELI’s major publications at free or discounted prices, and their employees attend ELI’s educational seminars, such as its boot camps on environmental law, free of charge.
Board: A board of directors provides oversight to the Institute. The board members are leaders from federal and state government, industry, the private bar, citizen organizations, and academia.
Funding: Most of ELI’s funding comes from project-specific grants from major organizations, foundations, and government agencies.
Major research areas
ELI’s research is organized into six major areas: climate and energy; international programs; environmental governance; environmental health; land and biodiversity; and freshwater and ocean resources. Under each of these six umbrellas are the research programs, most of which are managed independently of other programs. For example, under Water Resources there are programs addressing oceans, wetlands, international waters, and water quality. Within the Oceans Program are publications on sustainable fisheries; conferences to develop laws that foster ecosystem-based management; and continuing legal education seminars on issues ranging from ocean-based shipping to the potential for wave-generated electricity. Each of the six major program areas is this diverse, and most of the research done by ELI has such a focus on single issues. ELI typically publishes the results of its research in research reports.
Research Publications
Most of the work done by the ELI research and policy staff becomes reports that are produced in-house and published electronically. ELI makes these reports available, usually free of charge, on their website.
Periodicals
Other periodicals by ELI are available via subscription (The Environmental Law Reporter) or membership (The Environmental Forum).
Books
ELI Press publishes books by outside authors. Over the years, some of the most popular publications have been The Practical Guide to Environmental Management, now in its 11th edition, and The Environmental Law Deskbook, now in its eighth edition. The latter is one of dozens of types of Deskbooks that ELI has produced.