On Friday November 22, the Environmental Law Program hosted nearly 200 alumni and friends for its annual Fedder Lecture and winetasting party. Professor Jingjing Zhang, director of the law school’s Transnational Environmental Acountability (TEA) Project, delivered the lecture, which is named after the late Joel and Ellen Fedder.
Professor Zhang delivered the first Fedder Lecture in 2009 when she then was a lawyer for the Center for Legal Assistance for Pollution Victims in Beijing. Known as the “Erin Brockovich of China,” Zhang brought landmark public interest cases on behalf of victims of pollution in China. After moving to the United States, Professor Zhang joined the Maryland faculty in 2018 as a Lecturer in Law. Her lecture on “From National to Transnational Environmental Accountability” reviewed the trajectory of her career, which now focuses on holding multinational corporations accountable for environmental harm caused by their operations in developing countries.
Professor Zhang described how her visits to developing countries made her realize that some Chinese companies operating abroad were causing the same types of pollution she had fought against in China. She described the TEA Project’s recent field trip to Guinea where a multidisciplinary team of students and faculty studied the environmental and social damage caused by a bauxite mine operated by a Chinese company. Professor Zhang urged students to “find their True North” by promoting environmental justice both at home and abroad. View Professor Zhang's lecture online.
The Fedder Lecture was followed by the Environmental Law Program's 28th annual winetasting party. Photos of the lecture and the winetasting are available here.