F A C U LT Y P R O F I L E
FACULTY Professor Katrina Fischer Kuh First Haub Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law What brought you to Pace? I joined Pace Law in the fall of 2017. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to join one of the country’s most exciting environmental law programs. You are the first Haub Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law—what does that mean to you? Becoming the Haub Distinguished Professor is both an honor and a responsibility. Pace’s environmental law program has produced a generation of environmental professionals who have shaped environmental laws and improved environmental outcomes throughout the world. The Haub Distinguished Professor, a position made possible by the generosity of the Haub family and their commitment to environmental protection, must build on the Environmental Law Program’s successes to find solutions to our most serious environmental challenge yet, climate change. What is the best part about teaching for you? The passion, energy and ingenuity of my students gives me hope that, as intractable as some environmental challenges seem, we will find ways to use law and policy to craft workable solutions. What do you wish students would realize sooner rather than later? I wish that I could better help students understand that their time in law school is a luxury. It is hard work, but it also an opportunity to think deeply, expand horizons, and contemplate core questions about the way that our society functions. What sets the Haub Environmental Law Program apart? The extraordinary accomplishments of our environmental alumni, the excellence of our environmental library collection (including most especially Pace’s environmental monograph collection), and the richness of our environmental programming.
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PA C E L AW A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E
What does some of your current work focus on? I am writing about the function of public disclosure of environmental information, generally, and, more specifically, how to design environmental labels to make them more effective. I am also involved in efforts to amend the New York State Constitution to provide for an individual right to a healthy environment, and working with the International Bar Association to develop a report on climate adaptation. Let’s talk climate change—what about this problem has led you to focus so much of your reading, writing, and teaching on it? Climate change is a “super wicked” problem, closely tied to core questions of sustainability, that presents a challenge for environmental law and policy that is unprecedented both in terms of its complexity and what is at stake. Do you have any hobbies (outside of the law) that you would like to mention? In my experience to date, working moms do not have the luxury of hobbies—ask me again in 10 years! n