“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
“The reality of activism, for the environment or any other cause, is that democracy is at work. Citizens are exercising democratic rights. Rather than being the exception to the rule, for democracy to thrive, all citizens should be activists.”
Who We Are
The Environmental Law Student Society (ELSS) is a student-run society at Dalhousie University. We are the only student environmental law organization in the Maritime Provinces.
The ELSS is advised by environmental law faculty, coordinates with the Marine Environmental Law Institute (MELI) and the Marine Environmental Law Program (MELP).
Over the years the ELSS has participated in, and initiated, many student and community activities and has done important work (and made some progress) on ‘greening’ the Dalhousie campus.
Throughout ELSS history members have taken on crucial environmental law pro-bono projects, and currently we are creating an Environmental Law and Policy Service (ELPS) to take part in the community more directly. We will still work with Dalhousie Pro-Bono, and with this two-pronged approach, there will be plenty of opportunities to get hands-on experience.
There are many distinguished environmental law graduates from Dalhousie Law School, most notably Elizabeth May, for whom we have named our environmental law student award. Past graduates work in many fields, such as government, NGO’s and International Organizations, not just legal practice.
At ELSS we work hard, and strive to improve the state of the environment through our chosen tool; the law. However, we still like to have fun, and have the occasional night out, party or hike (with a green theme) to relax and get to know one another on a personal level.
We look forward to meeting students with an interest in environmental law and hope you will join us to help out with our many projects and initiatives.