For a long time, ERLI devotes itself to environmental law research for the purpose of answering fundamental questions on a variety of topics with mainstream research methods. It gives special attention to the fundamental theory of environmental law, especially the values of environmental law, environmental right, and environmental civil law, makes a unique contribution to the development of environmental law, and sets the direction of environmental law research. Since its establishment, its researchers produced more than 300 publications and more than 20 books, including Communication and Coordination: Civil Law Protection of Environmental Rights and Legal Status of Animals. In the 2006 ranking of Chinese graduate education, ERLI was ranked as the third among all environmental law programs. ERLI follows the spirits of the predecessors of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and devotes itself to the nurture of high caliber elites. It has a team of high standard teachers and well developed curriculum. It offers undergraduate and graduate students 9 courses, including environmental law, resources law, and international environmental law. It produced more than 20 textbooks. Many of them were selected into the list of planned textbooks for the Tenth Five-Year Plan and Eleventh Five-Year Plan. The Environmental Law Clinic established in 2002 offers legal services to the society while teaching students and achieved much success. In sum, ERLI is a cradle of high standard elites of environmental law. ERLI does much scholastic public interest work for a long time and promotes the development of environmental and resources law research. The Environmental and Resources Law Review, which was first published in 2000, is the first domestic law journal specialized in environmental and resources law. This law review is frequently cited and has much influence. ERLI launched the Environmental Law Research Website (www.enlaw.org) in 2004, which is the cyberspace academy for environmental law scholars. ERLI undertook or is currently undertaking several national, ministerial, or provincial research projects sponsored by such organizations as the National Fund for Social Sciences, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice, and Hubei Province. It undertook the drafting or revision work of Water Law of the People’s Republic of China, Environmental Protection Regulations of Zhuhai City, Regulations of Hubei Province on the Supervision of Water Affairs, Regulations on the Protection of Water Resources of Yangtze River Catchment, Regulations of the Hubei Province on Forestry Management, and several other legal documents. It has close cooperation with the Supreme People’s Court, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, All-China Environment Federation, Stanford University, Waseda University, NRDC, ABA, Conservation International, and many other agencies. ERLI will continue to further environmental law research with an emphasis on resources law, energy law, and interdisciplinary topics. It also plans to establish a broad and effective forum of environmental law practice for lawyers, judges, scholars, students, volunteers, and others to promote environmental law practice and safeguard environmental rights and interests in the form of research reports, consultation reports, publications, workshops, training programs, and legislation suggestions. Address: 1 South Lake South Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan, Hubei, China Zip Code: 430073 Tele/Fax: 027-88386277 Website: www.enlaw.org 
The Environmental and Resources Law Institute (ERLI) of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law was founded in 1999. It has the authority to confer master’s degrees and doctoral degrees. Currently it has 7 full-time researchers, including 2 professors, 1 associate professor, and 4 lecturers. All of them have a doctoral degree. It also has dozens of high caliber part-time researchers from home and abroad. The director is Professor Lv Zhongmei. She was honored as one of the Top Ten Young Legal Scholars (the second group) of China and served as a Vice President of the Higher People’s Court of Hubei Province. Currently she is a member of the National People’s Congress, Associate Chairperson of China Environmental and Resources Law Society, and President of Hubei University of Economics.
