Climate Justice
This team works to secure the rights of youth to a safe and healthy climate. In partnership with Our Children’s Trust, this team is working on a youth-led constitutional and climate rights lawsuit in Florida to secure fundamental rights guaranteed by the Florida Constitution.
Stormwater Coalition
This team works in coalition with Miami Waterkeeper, Everglades Law Center, and PEER Group to address the impacts of stormwater pollution and violations of the Clean Water Act in Miami-Dade County. The EJC supports the coalition with litigation, education, and community outreach.
Impact Litigation: Old Smokey
This is a class action lawsuit on behalf of residents and property owners in West Coconut Grove who were subjected to decades of toxic ash and pollution from a waste incinerator operated by the City of Miami. The EJC works with lead counsel in seeking medical monitoring for exposed residents and compensation for property damage and personal injuries.
Heat Justice
Extreme heat has become a life-or-death issue for outdoor workers in South Florida, and a health and livability issue for historically-segregated communities. The heat justice team works to mitigate the impacts of heat on these groups and for heat-related infrastructure that advances a just climate transition.
Housing Justice
Through policy campaigns and interdisciplinary research, resources, and tools, this team works closely with Struggle for Miami's Affordable and Sustainable Housing (SMASH) to ensure that housing is a human right. Check out one of our tools, the Displacement Vulnerability and Mitigation Tool, here.
Food & Healthy Communities
Working alongside community partners, this team seeks to secure affordable, available, healthy, and accessible food and ensure access to green spaces. This team seeks to implement the human right to food by identifying barriers that undermine food security and collaborating on innovative solutions and policies to transform food systems in South Florida. And collaborating closely with the Overtown community, this team also aims to improve the quality of Overtown’s public parks and provides legal research and advocacy to its partners Urban Health Partnerships, Overtown Children & Youth Coalition, and Catalyst Miami.
Past Projects
The EJC’s prior projects include:
- developing a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) template and general resources guide;
- examining the affirmative marketing practices of an affordable housing development in a low-income minority community to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal regulations;
- conducting an environmental health disparity analysis of Miami-Dade County;
- developing community resources on right-to-know legislation;
- analyzing the relationship between the displacement of minority communities of color and form-based codes, such as Miami21 and Urban Center Districts in unincorporated Miami-Dade County;
- conducting a comparative analysis of flood risk disclosures across the United States both for homeowners and renters; and
- providing litigation support in a federal class action lawsuit seeking to address the environmental health consequences of exposure to a toxic dump site in the heart of a disenfranchised and historically discriminated against African-American community of Dunbar in Fort Myers, Florida.
For Information
Please contact environmentaljusticeclinic@law.miami.edu for more information about the EJC and its current or past projects.
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(Pictured: Students from the Environmental Justice Clinic and the Human Rights Clinic after a joint Town Hall meeting on 