Jackson said he hoped the conference would “give students exposure to the leading people in the field.”

A Harsh Environment

Giovinazzo said he started the petition after an environmental law class he preregistered for was cancelled in January.

“I thought that rather than being frustrated with the state of the environmental program, I would work with fellow students to bring more productive efforts to the table,” Giovinazzo said.

Two environmental law courses—one on basic environmental law and the other on natural resources and the environment—were originally slated to be taught by HLS Professor Bruce L. Hay, who is informally “designated as the environmental law professor,” according to Giovinazzo.

But in January, the class on natural resources was cancelled and another professor—Suffolk Law School Professor Steven Ferrey—was called in to replace Hay for the basic environmental law course.

“The course was cancelled for personal reasons,” Rakoff said. “I believe that what was done was done in the best interest of our students.”

But students said they were disappointed when they heard that Hay was no longer teaching.

“Professor Hay has been the one person on the faculty who has been sticking up for the [environmental law] program,” Giovinazzo said.

Uncertainty is not new to environmental law courses, according to the petition.

“The environmental law courses are still arranged on a year-to-year basis with no certainty as to what classes will be offered and who will teach them,” the petition says.

Giovinazzo said that environmental law has never been strong at Harvard.

“There is a circular problem going on here. The program has been so weak for so long that there was a skepticism among the administration regarding student interest in environmental law courses,” Giovinazzo said.

Branching Out

Professors and students said that despite the lack of attention it receives at the law school, environmental law is an important interdisciplinary field that affects other disciplines such as constitutional and administrative law.