The James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona (UA) has established the Global Mining Law Center, an interdisciplinary unit that will educate lawyers and others involved with the global mining industry.
The new center, according to the university, also will support cutting-edge research, assemble leaders from across the mining spectrum to foster productive dialogue, and create solutions that address pressing law and policy issues.
The center will draw on the college’s expertise in international trade and business law, human rights law, environmental law, and indigenous peoples law and policy. The planned curriculum includes specialty courses on the intellectual property of mining, water law, multinational taxation, and mining workplace safety and legal responsibility.
“Arizona Law is the first academic institution with a global mining law center of this magnitude,” said Marc Miller, dean of the college. “As befits Arizona’s economy and history, we have taught mining law for nearly a century. This new center will allow us to provide graduates with even more resources to enter a complex and critically important industry.”
The center will roll out degree and non-degree training opportunities online and in residence, including master’s degrees with a mining law and policy focus for both lawyers (an LLM) and non-lawyers (an MLS); certificate courses for executives, lawyers, managers, engineers, civic and community leaders, and government officials in the mining industry; and a J.D. resident degree with a concentration and certificate in mining law and policy.
The center is led by John Lacy, an alumnus of the college and professor of practice who has devoted his career to international mining transactions. He also is head of the natural resources practice group at the law firm of DeConcini McDonald Yetwin & Lacy.
“The University of Arizona is in a remarkable position of combining its long-standing strengths in law, policy, geological engineering, geosciences and natural resource economics, along with many other science and social science disciplines, to make a significant impact in mining education, research and industry,” Lacy said.
Mary Poulton, director of the UA’s interdisciplinary Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources and former head of the department of mining and geological engineering, is also on the center’s leadership team.
“The Global Mining Law Center fills an important function as a partner with the Lowell Institute by bringing legal and policy expertise to bear on some of the most challenging issues facing the world,” Poulton said.
