ABOUT US
Launched in 2024, ESLC aims to bring together like-minded students, academics, policy-makers and practitioners to shape a legal landscape that promotes sustainable futures. Given the prevalence and relevance of sustainability in a broad range of legal niches, our club focuses on cross-sectoral issues in environmental law, ESG and corporate transactions, and sustainability-adjacent laws/policy.
To do this, we have rolled out three categories of core initiatives in our first year:
Knowledge Acquisition — We plan a variety of guest seminars each semester. Each seminar is facilitated by SMU or external faculty or practitioners who introduce their unique specialisations and engage in dynamic conversations with our club members. Past topics include pressing issues in international biodiversity laws and sustainable development.
Flagship Events and Professional Development — We organise workshops, panel discussions and competitions to raise awareness about issues and emerging careers in this space. The 2025 inaugural iteration of our flagship event, Green Week, comprised outreach booths, a waste management lecture and upcycling workshop, and a panel dialogue and networking session featuring a distinguished and diverse line-up of speakers from academia, practice and public service.
Self-directed Research and Advocacy — Our publications and podcast teams provide platforms for our members to research on hot-button topics, engage in discussion, and showcase their findings through diverse mediums. Through the same platforms, we hope to initiate discourse surrounding and advocate for sustainability law issues within the wider student community.
Feel free to reach out to us via email: smu_eslca@sa.smu.edu.sg
KEY EVENTS
Pathways to Sustainable Futures Panel
Featuring a panel of distinguished speakers - Professors Harro Van Asselt (Cambridge), Kate Owens (University of Sydney), Aidan M Wong, Michelle Lim & Xin Yu Ng (SMU), each bringing a unique perspective on envisioning a sustainable 2050.
Green Week
The 2025 inaugural iteration of our flagship event comprised outreach booths, a waste management lecture and upcycling workshop, and a panel dialogue and networking session featuring a distinguished and diverse line-up of speakers from academia, practice and public service.
REACH OUT TO US
GALLERY
HOW TO JOIN THE CLUB?
One term as an exco or associate runs from January to December each year.
Exco recruitment is at the start of each academic year while associate recruitment is in December.
The recruitment process typically involves a Google Form submission followed by an interview.
FAQ
According to The Law Society of Singapore: “Legal professionals play a crucial role in advising and ensuring complance with ESG standards, contributing to a sustainable and responsible business environment. As trusted advisors to businesses, lawyers are poised to make significant contributions in key areas such as: ESG reporting and disclosure; Green and transition financing; Carbon management; Combating greenwashing.” These are just a few examples of how sustainability affects your practice of law. It is not a mere segregated subset of law, but interacts with different aspects of law across disputes, transactional and advisory work; and different subjects like contract, torts, property, and even constitutional law.
Environmental law: pollution and waste management; biodiversity and resource conservation; climate change mitigation and adaptation; international treaties and laws
ESG, transactions, and regulations: international benchmarks; financing; risks and due diligence; green banking and financial regulation
Sustainability adjacent laws and policy: intersections with other areas of law such as contract, torts, property, public international law; extra-legal tools to achieve policy goals.
We hope to equip students with a broad-based foundation in various aspects of environmental & sustainability law, as well as different regulations and policies. This is to allow students to understand the current legal landscape as well as pointers to note in their future practice (legal or otherwise). How this will be done will be through our internal speaker sessions & workshops, where we will invite professors and professionals down to share more about specific aspects of environmental and sustainability law. Students will also be given the opportunity to apply this knowledge and conduct their own research into these topics.
We hope to provide students with opportunities to connect with professionals in the field to build networks, and learn more about the potential career pathways one can take within and outside of the law with regards to sustainability.
We offer a mix of intra-departmental work and inter-departmental sessions & research - in essence, you will still play a role in aiding club operations, but still have the opportunity to dive deeper into sustainability and environmental law related issues. We hope that our members will not be overly siloed in their different roles, but be able to engage in meaningful conversations with one another and forge friendships that go beyond the club.
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