The fifth Green Legal Lab is scheduled to take place from August 29 to October 27, 2025. The application deadline was June 15, 2025, and no further applications will be accepted for this year.
Strategic thinking regarding the protection of the environment has thus far played an insufficient role in the education of young jurists. The development of new ideas at the margins of existing law has also been neglected. Yet it is precisely the task of the next generation of legal professionals to further develop the law in the direction of sustainability and greenhouse gas neutrality and to ensure the preservation of civil liberties for civic engagement.
The Green Legal Lab is a practical training program lasting several weeks that pairs young legal professionals with experienced environmental lawyers and representatives of environmental associations. Participants expand their knowledge of environmental law and learn the basics of strategic litigation. In working groups, they develop legal solutions to environmental problems that can be implemented by the participating environmental NGOs.
The Lab combines legal training with civil society engagement for the common good and exchange with like-minded people. It promotes independent and creative learning and working.
The Green Legal Lab is a mix of in-person and online events. It starts and ends with a two- to three-day in-person event. During the online phase between the in-person events, a weekly online session (evenings) is scheduled. In addition, participants should expect to spend about eight hours per week on independent work and research.
Participants work in small groups of four to seven people on a specific environmental problem. An environmental NGO acts as the client. Participants present the results of their work at the final event. In previous years, topics such as climate protection, water protection, and nature conservation have been addressed, as well as issues relating to the implementation of the CSDDD, the Aarhus Convention, and European genetic engineering legislation.
For the NGOs, the lab is a kind of legal experimental space where they can submit a specific environmental problem with one or more related questions and hopefully receive one or more corresponding legal answers. The Lab is explicitly intended to offer the opportunity to move away from specific cases and focus on the broader context of environmental law and medium- and long-term legal strategies. Beyond the specific results of the Lab, the NGOs benefit from the fact that qualified and motivated young professionals in the field of environmental law are familiar with the concerns of the NGOs.
The results of the working groups are incorporated into the current or future work of the participating NGOs. Most former Lab participants are part of the GLI Young Professionals Network. Many are now working as environmental lawyers or in environmental NGOs themselves.