Berkeley Law’s student-run Ecology Law Quarterly (ELQ)—among the nation’s most respected and cited environmental law journals—has recently launched an online companion, Ecology Law Currents.
One of the first online environmental law journals, Currents offers scholars the opportunity for timely analysis in a particularly volatile and rapidly-morphing legal landscape. “This lets us confront changes in environmental law more quickly,” says Karis Gong ’09, who led the effort to form the new journal with Dan Pollak ’08.
Gong and Pollak did extensive legwork—querying lawyers, law professors, and editors of other academic Web-based publications—before suggesting the new online effort to ELQ’s board. “An online journal also gives contributors a chance to weigh in early on a key case decision or administrative ruling,” Pollak says. “With this format, lawyers and students with little free time for traditional long-form articles have greater incentive and opportunity to submit something.”
Currents debuted in April on ELQ’s website with a themed issue that explores the revival of nuclear power as a response to global warming. The next issue, to be posted in August, will outline California’s leadership role in the global response to energy and environmental challenges.
A venue for short-form articles and analysis, Currents accepts submissions between 1,500 and 3,000 words on topical environmental law and policy issues such as cases within the past 12 months, opinion commentary, and regulatory developments.
Catherine Mongeon ’10 is this year’s editor of Currents, with Christopher Williams ’10 and Jessica Dicamillo ’10 serving as assistant editors.
– By Andrew Cohen