• 7/8/08: Ecuador Constitutional Assembly votes to approve rights of nature in new constitution
  
  
• 7/08: Barry Law Prof. Judith Koons has article published in ABA Young Lawyers Division, "Earth Jurisprudence: The Future of Law and the Planet" The author wishes to acknowledge the scholarship of Thomas Berry, Cormac Cullinan, Eric Freyfogle, Bradley Karkkainen, Aldo Leopold, Roderick Nash, Sr. Patricia Siemen, and Mary Christina Wood whose pioneering work graces this article.
  
  
• 7/08: Cormac Cullinan and EnAct International of South Africa, are honoured by the Mail & Guardian with a Greening the Future Award. They received a special commendation from the judges for promoting Earth Jurisprudence and changing mindsets both locally and globally. More details on the Gaia Foundation site
  
  Join Cormac and other 'Earth's Lawyers', from Africa, USA and the UK, for a two-day "Wild Law workshop", or a dynamic five-day course at Schumacher College looking at the theory, philosophy and practice of Earth Jurisprudence.
  
  
• 7/08: Great Ape Project shares Declaration to extend moral principles and rights to non-human great apes

• 4/16/08: CEJ course syllabi posted online: Exploring Principles of Earth Jurisprudence
  
  
• 2/15/08: FLORIDA BAR NEWS article published: "Barry sets free climate change seminar" about CEJ & Barry Law Review's upcoming symposium, "Framing an Earth Jurisprudence for a Planet in Peril," Feb. 28-29, 2008, in Orlando
  
  
• 1/13/08: First EJ article to be published in a US Law Review written by Barry Law Professor Judith Koons
  
  
• 1/08/08: Cosmology & Bioneers Public Discussion Series announced at Barry, Jan. - Apr. 2008
  

• 12/07/07: The United Nations announces it is launching an ambitious and innovative three and a half year program to work with the world’s major faiths to tackle climate change.
  
  
• 11/07: CEJ in the news! Florida Catholic covers the Water World conference in its article, "Water Woes"; Barry news article: "University brings together community for conference on water" & STU Today Newsletter article
  

• 10/11/07: CEJ announces its new publication, the Earth Jurisprudence Student Series. View student papers!
  
  
• 8/16/07: Papers presented at the Wild Law Conference 2006: "Changing Environmental Law to Meet Global Challenges" (based on the book Wild Law by Cormac Cullinan, and organized by the United Kingdom Environmental Law Association and the Environmental Law Foundation in association with the University of Brighton) now available on CEJ web site .

  Includes articles by Cormac Cullinan, Norman Baker, Satish Kumar, Elizabeth Rivers, and Ian Macon. These articles originally appeared in Environmental Law & Management (2007) 19: 59-92, published by Lawtext Publishing, Ltd., and are used here with permission. Additional Wild Law articles available on our Earth Jurisprudence Viewpoints page.
  
  

• 7/18/07: Article published by National Catholic Reporter on CEJ Director Pat Siemen, "Nature Needs a Lawyer" (PDF) / podcast posted on National Catholic Reporter web site
  
  6/26/07: Upcoming Events announced: CEJ Conference, Water World: H20, Life, and the Future, Oct. 23-24 in Miami (see World Water Day Message from Pope Benedict XVI) , and a joint Barry Law Review & CEJ Symposium, "Framing an Earth Jurisprudence for a Planet in Peril," Feb. 28-29, 2008, in Orlando. Read more about these on the Events page!
  
  
• 5/28/07: CEJ Director Pat Siemen featured on the radio story, "Defending the Rights of Nature," by the Great Lakes Radio Consortium
  
  
• 3/22/07: Message issued from Pope Benedict XVI signed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to the Director General of FAO on the Occasion of the Celebration of World Water Day, 2007
  
  
• 2/21/07: Thomas Berry interviewed on Allegheny Front Environmental Radio
  
  
• 2/6/07: See Miriam MacGillis' talk on “The Role of Humans within the Earth Community” (open Windows Media video from CEJ seminar at Barry University Law School, Feb. 5, 2007)
  
  
• 1/26/07: Alfredo Garcia appointed new Dean of STU Law School
  
  From STU President, Msgr. Casale:
  
  I am extremely pleased to announce that I have appointed Alfredo Garcia permanent Dean of St. Thomas University School of Law.

Some weeks ago the faculty, by an overwhelming majority, recommended to me that in lieu of a national search, Al be appointed permanent Dean. Al is a consummate scholar, an excellent teacher and well regarded by his colleagues in the law profession, members of the University family and most especially his students. He has administrative experience, having served at St. Thomas University as Associate Dean on two occasions. Born in Cuba, Al came to the United States and typically developed himself into a leader in the profession of law.

Our diverse Law School is blessed to have had Al as a member of the faculty for the past 18 years and is doubly blessed to now have him as Dean. His vision and experience will continue the rapid development of St. Thomas University as a leader in legal education.

• 1/3/07: Earth Jurisprudence Seminar offered
  
  The first law school course in Earth Jurisprudence is being taught at Barry University School of Law during the Spring term 2007. It is a two-hour credit seminar taught by Professor Sister Patricia Siemen, Esquire, Director of the Center for Earth Jurisprudence and adjunct faculty at Barry School of Law. Twenty second and third year students are enrolled in this 14 week course. The seminar will examine the foundations and principles of the newly emerging field of Earth Jurisprudence. Cormac Cullinan in Wild Law proposes there is a "Great Jurisprudence" established by how Earth functions to sustain life. This seminar allows students to step beyond the positive law to question how law may serve the well-being of Earth as a whole. The course includes study of the cosmological, ecological and social contexts for Earth-based jurisprudence, emerging concepts of Wild Law, principles of an ecological worldview, the 1982 UN Charter for Nature, the Earth Charter, legal concepts of indigenous people, Catholic social teaching and ecology, and emerging legal and equitable remedies for an Earth jurisprudence. Intentional time in the natural world is a course requirement. Each student will be asked to write a research paper that ties together a personal experience of nature, a theory of Earth Jurisprudence and an application of that theory. VIEW SYLLABUS
  
  

• 12/23/06: CEJ leaders visit Thomas Berry in North Carolina - SEE PHOTOS (Photos are of CEJ Director Patricia Siemen, Herman Greene and Margaret Galiardi, CEJ consultants, visiting with Thomas Berry on December 21, 2007)
  
  Thomas Berry, cultural historian, "geologian," author, and Catholic priest, is one of the leading contemporary voices for Earth. His teaching and writings have inspired many people's thinking about humankind's place within the Earth Community and the Universe.(http://www.thomasberry.org) His "Principles for an Earth Jurisprudence" are foundational to the mission and philosophy of the Center for Earth Jurisprudence, and he serves as founding mentor and advisor to the Center for Earth Jurisprudence.

  Berry was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1914. From his academic beginnings as a historian of world cultures and religions, Berry developed into a historian of the Earth and its evolutionary processes. He is among the first to develop foundational principles for an Earth Jurisprudence that recognize "that every component of the Earth community has three rights: the right to be, the right to habitat, and the right to fulfill its role in the ever-renewing processes of the Earth community" (Evening Thoughts, 110).Following the December visit from the CEJ team (Margaret Galiardi, Herman Greene and Patricia Siemen), Thomas graciously wrote to the Director: "It is a delight in these my later years to be associated with you. What you are doing fulfills one of my fondest hopes. Indeed nothing has so fascinated me in these later years as this project concerned with law and a final recognition that humans do not have exclusive rights to the wealth of Earth. Every being has its own rights to fulfill its role in the great community of existence.

  It is indeed an enduring joy to myself that you... are so committed to this work. If there is any single act in America that could bring about an integral Earth community, it is, I believe, this legal recognition of the rights of all beings throughout Earth. The term "rights" being defined as giving every being its due, it follows clearly that rights are qualitatively different. It follows, also, that the right to one's function in the various biosystems includes the predator-prey relationship. This aspect in the long run ultimately proves beneficial rather than harmful to the Earth community as a whole. In this respect humans are required by their status to impose limitations on their urge to exploit other modes of being."
  
  

• 11/27/06: Director Pat Siemen reports on her bridge-building trip to London for the UK Environmental Law Association's annual Wild Law conference - SEE PHOTOS
  
  Our meetings in the London area exceeded my expectations. In addition to participating with 20 dedicated and experienced solicitors, barristers, environmental studies and law students for a weekend workshop, we also met with attorneys and interested people from the Gaia Foundation, the UK Environmental Law Association, and the Environmental Law Foundation, with Edward Goldsmith, founder and editor emeritus of The Ecologist magazine, Satish Kumar, founder and editor of Resurgence, and Rupert Sheldrake, among others. Ed Posey and Liz Hosken from the Gaia Foundation provided us with their valuable time, experience, resource books and critical information on Community Ecological Governance, which looks to the customary laws of indigenous people for ways of enhancing the human-Earth relationship. I can already see future linkages between CEJ and the Program for Intercultural Human Rights at St. Thomas, as well as establishing contact with our own First Peoples living in Florida. The papers presented at the conference will be posted on the UKELA web site.
  
  One afternoon over 15 experienced attorneys and advocates spent two hours reviewing the initial CEJ syllabus for the EJ Seminar being offered at Barry Law School this Spring semester. Fortunately we had time to further revise and strengthen the curriculum, in light of their input. As Cormac Cullinan said to me, "Pat, we all want this program to succeed. You are the first program to try doing this within law schools. We will give any support you need."
  
  We ended our time in London by making a presentation to about 60 people on our new Center for Earth Jurisprudence. The presentation was taped, so we should be receiving a copy of the program soon which will be available for other viewing.
  
  I hope this synopsis of our time away conveys some sense of the excitement that we, and others have about our emerging Center for Earth Jurisprudence.
  
  
  
• 9/19/06: Tamaqua Law Is First In Nation to Recognize Rights of Nature
  
  This local ordinance does two important things: "It denies the right of corporations to spread sewage sludge as fertilizer on farmland, even when the farmer is willing, and it recognizes natural communities and ecosystems as legal persons with legal rights. It is among the first 'wild laws' to be passed anywhere in the world."
  
  This reflects the current work of Thomas Linzey, Esquire, of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund as well as the work of Cormac Cullinan, whose book, Wild Law, is featured in the spring CEJ course at Barry Law School.

  Both Mr. Linzey and Mr. Cullinan will be featured speakers at an Earth Jurisprudence Colloquium at St. Thomas University School of Law on Thursday and Friday, April 12 -13.