As life depends on the systems that support it, the right to life should inherently reach the right to life support systems – though it doesn’t. Throughout legal history, science has only recently emerged to demonstrate how interdependent human life is with its environmental surroundings, including clean air, clean water, thriving ecosystems, and a stable climate system. Where government actions or policies of inaction harm or threaten these life support systems, lives dependent on them should be able to seek remedy.

This CLE course steps through the jurisprudence of various rights-based approaches to environmental protection, identifies the best way forward, and explains how to maximize and replicate successful measures across the nation and, perhaps, the world.