Vermont Law School

Vermont Law School (VLS) is a private law school located in South Royalton, Vermont (a village of Royalton, Vermont). The school has one of the United States' leading programs in environmental law.

Facts

* Campus area: 13 acres (53,000 m²)
* Enrollment: 615
* School type: Independent
* Year founded: 1972
* Degrees Offered: Juris Doctor (JD); Master of Laws (LL.M) in Environmental Law; Masters of Environmental Law and Policy (MELP) (formerly known as Master of Studies in Environmental Law (MSEL)); Joint JD/MELP
* Ranked #1 in Environmental Law by "U.S. News and World Report" , 2007; Ranked #2 in 2008 (never lower than #2 since rankings began in 1991, #1 ranked 11 times)

Profile of the 2008 JD Entering Class

* JD Class: 193
* LSAT 75th %: 158
* LSAT Median: 155
* LSAT 25th%: 151
* GPA 75th%: 3.54
* GPA Median: 3.25
* GPA 25th%: 2.95
* Students of Color: 26 (13 %)
* Median Age: 25
* States and Territories: 42
* Undergraduate Institutions: 138
* Merit Scholars: 49

Centers, institutes, and clinics

* Environmental Law Center

* Institute for Energy & the Environment

* Environmental Tax Policy Institute

* Land Use Institute

* Environmental & Natural Resource Law Clinic

* South Royalton Legal Clinic

* General Practice Program

Julien and Virginia Cornell Library

The Cornell Library contains over 220,000 print volumes, including primary and secondary legal materials focusing on state, national, and international law. Its reference section includes legal encyclopedias and dictionaries and reference sources including bibliographies and form books. The library also possesses a collection of microforms including congressional documents, state session laws, and briefs. The library's electronic collection includes access to LexisNexis and Westlaw and other online gateways and databases, as well as a large catalog of full-text electronic journals and books and databases offering primary legal materials.

As Vermont Law Schools offers a well-known environmental program, the library maintains "an extensive interdisciplinary environmental collection, including journals, monographs, electronic resources, and other material related to the study of the environment and environmental law and policy". [cite web | author=Library Information| year=2008| title=Information about Julien and Virginia Library: Collections | format=webpage| url=http://www.vermontlaw.edu/library/index.cfm?doc_id=860#Collections | accessdate=2008-04-04]

The Cornell Library is open to the public.

Law reviews and journals

* [http://www.vermontlawreview.com/ Vermont Law Review]
* [http://www.vjel.org/ Vermont Journal of Environmental Law]

Solomon Amendment

Vermont Law School is the only law school in the U.S. to refuse cooperation with the Solomon Amendment, a statute passed by Congress requiring colleges and universities to allow military recruitment on campus or risk losing federal funding. VLS refused and in doing so gave up over a million dollars in federal funding. The school is also part of FAIR, or the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, a consortium of 38 law schools and law faculties that challenged the Solomon Amendment in "Rumsfeld v. FAIR", claiming that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy was discriminatory. The district court ruled for the Attorney General, but the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the law schools. Oral arguments were heard before the Supreme Court on December 6, 2005, and a unanimous ruling for the government was issued on March 6, 2006, in part because the government could directly require campuses to allow military recruitment, it can therefore also indirectly require the campuses to allow recruitment or forego funds. [cite web | author=US Supreme Court| year=2006| title=Rumsfeld, Sec. of Defence, et al. v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, et al. | format=PDF | work=547 U.S. ____ (2006) | url=http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/05pdf/04-1152.pdf | accessdate=2006-05-04]

See also

* List of colleges and universities in the United States
** List of colleges and universities in Vermont
* Peter A. Bradford

External links

* [http://www.vermontlaw.edu/ Vermont Law School official website]
* [http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/law/brief/lawsp03_brief.php] U.S. News & World Report - Environmental Law Rankings

* [http://www.top-law-schools.com/environmental-law-schools.html] www.top-law-schools.com

References