China Program Report

Fang Lei with Antoinette Moore

More and more lawyers in China are working to protect the environment through law. ELAW is hosting Chinese lawyers for ELAW Fellowships, to help build their capacity and connect them with their colleagues around the world. Many ELAW fellows from China work with Wang Canfa, Director of the Beijing-based Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV). Earlier this year, Wang helped push through a new water pollution law that toughens punishment of company officials through hefty fines. Our latest fellows from China, Fang Lei and Liang Xi, both work with Wang Canfa at CLAPV.

Fang Lei

Fang Lei enjoyed a two-week Fellowship at ELAW in September and learned how grassroots attorneys around the world share information to protect communities and the environment. “Environmental law is new in China and there is so much I can do,” she said.

Fang Lei is studying law at China University of Political Science and Law, in Beijing. She answers the Hot Line at the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims where she was named 2007 Volunteer of the Year.

While at ELAW, Fang Lei spent time with Antoinette Moore, a human rights attorney from Belize who helped Mayan Villagers win a landmark case granting them rights to their traditional lands. Fang Lei also worked with ELAW staff and learned about alternative dispute resolution, how energy policy can protect the climate, and how environmental testing of soil and other scientific tools might advance her work protecting a community in Heilongjiang Province from a polluting chemical factory.

Fang Lei attended a court hearing, learned about U.S. environmental cases at the Western Environmental Law Center, and visited local waste management and recycling facilities.

She said: “I received tons of legal and scientific information. Most importantly, I felt personal encouragement for my work. Web sites have information, but no personal support. I feel truly inspired.”

Liang Xi

Liang Xi has just arrived for a ten-week ELAW Fellowship. He is studying law at China University of Political Science and Law and volunteering at the Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims. Liang Xi will work with ELAW staff and study English at the University of Oregon’s American English Institute. Many thanks to the American English Institute for its generous support!