The National Energy and Sustainability Moot Court Competition will be hosted this year by the WVU College of Law.
Law students from across the country will be in Morgantown March 8-10 for the eighth annual National Energy and Sustainability Moot Court Competition hosted by the West Virginia University College of Law.
The competition problem this year involves a liquefied natural gas facility, and whether an analysis of the environmental impacts requires consideration of the greenhouse gases that will be released when the natural gas is ultimately combusted in its foreign destination.
“The problem also raises issues about the government’s responsibility under the public trust doctrine to preserve access to certain public resources and to clean air and water,” said James Van Nostrand, director of WVU’s Center for Energy and Sustainable Development.
The moot court competition’s early rounds through semifinals will be held at WVU’s Erickson Alumni Center March 8, 9 and 10. The final round will be held on March 10 at 2:30 p.m. in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom at the WVU College of Law.
Admission to the final round is free and the public is invited to attend.
Law schools are sending 22 teams to the moot court competition. They are: Appalachian School of Law, College of William and Mary, George Washington University, Louisiana State University, Ohio State University, Pace University, South Texas College of Law Houston, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina, University of North Dakota, University of Pittsburgh, University of Utah, Washburn University, Duquesne University, University of Virginia, and Vermont Law School. As the host law school, WVU does not compete.
Ryke Longest of the Duke University School of Law will deliver the keynote address at the competition banquet on March 9 at the Erickson Alumni Center. He is founding director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Duke Law.
The first of its kind in the nation, the National Energy and Sustainability Moot Court Competition was established in 2011. It is hosted by the Moot Court Board, a WVU Law student organization.
-WVU-
jj/02/28/17
CONTACT: James Jolly, College of Law
304.293.7439; james.jolly@mail.wvu.edu
Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.