NELA's International Linkages

In line with its objective of promoting an understanding of the role of environmental law in Australia, the National Environmental Law Association is also actively working to develop relationships with similar organisations overseas in an endeavour to build NELA's international profile.

NELA currently enjoys a strong relationship with the Resource Management Law  Association of  New Zealand (RMLA) which will be strengthened in the near future following agreement of both Associations to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to outline our approach to reciprocal membership rights across the organisations, and provide some guidelines around publishing articles in our respective journals. It is intended that the MoU will signal the beginning of a much deeper relationship with the RMLA at an Executive level as well as opening up some dialogue amongst the membership of both bodies.

NELA is a member of the IUCN, the World Conservation Union, one of the 39 members in the OCEANIA region, and a member of the Australian Committee for IUCN which is located in Sydney. IUCN has a membership of more than 1,000 organisations from 147 countries spread across its eight statutory regions. The largest group of members represents non-governmental bodies, with other members representing government organisations and affiliates. NELA receives regular journals and information on the work of IUCN. 

Further afield, links are being developed between NELA and the American and Canadian Bar Associations through their respective sections on environment, energy and resources. NELA President, Robyn Glindemann, has had discussions with relevant executives in both organisations and there was universal interest in developing links between the CBA, ABA and NELA. Initially, these links will be fairly simple, for example linking websites and exchanging relevant information about environmental laws and law reform between our groups. But the intention is for the relationship to grow over time and may include things like providing articles for publication in our respective journals.  As evidence of these developing relationships, Robyn Glindemann recently travelled to Ottawa, Canada to attend and give a keynote address at the Air Quality and Climate Change Summit co-hosted by the Canadian Bar Association's National Environmental, Energy and Resources Law Section and the American Bar Association's Section of Environment, Energy and Resources.