About IEE
Advancing Environmental Enforcement Through Research, Education, and Practice
The Institute for Environmental Enforcement (IEE) at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law serves as a hub for research, professional training, legal education, and student engagement dedicated to advancing the study and practice of environmental enforcement. With a particular focus on environmental violations that also constitute criminal offenses, IEE examines the critical role enforcement plays in promoting environmental compliance, protecting communities, and maintaining a level playing field for businesses that invest in responsible environmental practices.
Working with government agencies and enforcement experts, the Institute provides practical training for investigators, prosecutors and technical personnel on best practices for the investigation and prosecution of environmental crimes. For students, it offers opportunities to learn about the sophisticated and specialized world of environmental criminal enforcement through externships, coursework, support of the professional training programs, and research.
The IEE sits at the crossroads of issues related to environmental protection, business regulation, and criminal justice, engaging with scholars and practitioners across these as well as other disciplines. For instance, it is working with the Seidenberg School of Computer Science to explore how advances in data analysis and intelligence systems can help illuminate environmental compliance risks.
The Institute also seeks to engage with scholars and practitioners on issues related to regulatory reform, organizational behavior, white-collar crime enforcement, corporate governance, and organizational culture.
The goal of the Institute is to move towards more effective use of limited government resources towards obtaining better compliance outcomes. Everyone agrees on the statutory goals of having a clean environment. Yet, while many companies comply with laws designed to achieve these goals, others do not. Sometimes this is done by purely criminal actors, but environmental violations and environmental crimes are also committed by businesses with the resources to comply, and sometimes with supposedly industry-standard compliance programs. Understanding the root causes of these failures, and the effectiveness of government responses, is essential. Without that understanding, identifying remedies, learning from past efforts, and more effectively combating environmental violations becomes a matter of guesswork.
—Steve Solow, Director, Institute for Environmental Enforcement