Attorneys, legal scholars and environmentalists will participate in a Cornell Law School symposium, "Changing of the Guardian: Re-examining the Role of the Federal Government in the Protection of Endangered Species and Environmental Habitat," Feb. 27 and 28.

The symposium, sponsored by the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, is free and open to the public. All sessions will be held in Myron Taylor Hall on the Cornell campus.

"This symposium will address a number of key issues related to environmental law, such as whether the federal government should give up some of its responsibility for protecting endangered species and fragile lands to state and local governments," said symposium editor Jessica White, a third-year law student.

Patrick A. Parenteau will deliver the keynote address Friday at 8 p.m., and Andrew Zepp will offer the response.

Parenteau is director of the Environmental Law Center and a professor at the University of Vermont Law School. He also has served as counsel for the National Wildlife Federation, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, special counsel for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a consultant for the Nature Conservancy.

Zepp is vice president for programs of the Land Trust Alliance in Washington, D.C. He is a former associate director of the Nature Conservancy's central and western New York chapters and has worked as a consultant for the Finger Lakes Land Trust in Ithaca.

Saturday's sessions begin at 10 a.m. with the following presentations:

• "Allocating Environmental Regulatory Authority: A Case of Localism," by Jonathan Macey, professor at the Cornell Law School, and Henry Butler, professor at the University of Kansas Law School. The discussant will be Cornell law Professor Jeffrey Rachlinski.
• "Reflections on the Race to the Bottom Debate and State Environmental Standard Setting: An Examination of Empirical Data," by Kirsten Engel, associate professor at the Tulane University School of Law. The discussant will be Barton Thompson Jr., professor at the Stanford Law School.
• "Can the Common Law Survive in a Statutory World?" by H. Marlow Green, J.D. '97, an attorney with Reid & Priest, New York. The discussant will be Cornell law Professor Fred McChesney.

After a lunch break in the Berger Atrium, the symposium continues at 2 p.m. with the following presentations:

• "Free Market Environmentalism: Hind Sight and Foresight," by Terry Anderson, executive director of the Political Economy Research Center, Bozeman, Mont. The discussant will be Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law School.
• "Alternative Conservation Tools: Selecting Among Governmental Purchase of Land, Private Purchase and Conservation," by Barton Thompson Jr., Stanford Law School. The discussant will be Andrew Zepp, Land Trust Alliance.
• "Regulating the Environment Without Regulating Private Landowners: The Case of Endangered Plants," by Jeffrey Rachlinski, Cornell Law School. The discussant will be J.B. Ruhl, associate professor at Southern Illinois School of Law.

Immediately following the presentations, a roundtable discussion with all symposium participants will be held. The symposium is expected to conclude at 5:30 p.m.