20 – 2021 Leadership Report
Upcomin 2020 - 2021 Calendar of Events
ng
The Science for Environmental Lawyers class field trip to Van Cortlandt Park Lake, engaging in a group discussion about the natural history of the lake and its water quality.
9 / 3 — 11 / 5
Weekly Joint Colloquia on Environmental Law with the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
9 / 18 Future Environmental Law Professors Workshop 10 / 7
Annual Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law by Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
10 / 12 Haub Environmental Law and Diplomacy Award
Ceremony, Presented in Memoriam to Deceased Environmental Defenders
11 / 13 First Annual Environmental Law and Policy Hack Competition Final Round
12 / 2 + 12 / 3
Joint Conference with Stockholm University – “The Climate Crisis: Legal Safeguards For Justice And Security”
2 / 17 — 2 / 19 + 3 / 6
Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition
The Environmental Law Society organized a trip to Stone Barns, where students learned about agricultural experimentation and production, as well as building a healthy and sustainable food system.
Cover based on The Trout Pool (1870) by Worthington Whittredge, Hudson River School, courtesy of The Met Open Access collection
Mes
from the Associate Deans of
Environmental Law Programs
Professor Katrina Kuh captured this icy scene on campus.
ssage
Last year, we reflected that our joy in the accomplishments of Haub Environmental Law was tempered by unease about the planet’s future. We reiterated our commitment to train sophisticated environmental practitioners and advocates to meet the Anthropocene’s existential environmental challenges, seek justice, and protect the rights of future generations. Intervening events, from the pandemic to jarring evidence of the extent and harm of systemic racism and disturbing manifestations of a changed climate, have only served to strengthen this commitment and underscore the importance of training the next generation of environmental lawyers. Our work as environmental lawyers and advocates connects in myriad and important ways with the events shaking society. Unsustainable development patterns and food systems, as well as the illegal wildlife trade, magnify the risk of zoonotic disease spillover. Professor Nick Robinson is encouraging adoption of the Berlin Principles to address these root causes. When such spillovers occur, weak governmental institutions and disregard for science hobble our response. Professors Katrina Kuh and Lissa Griffin have recently authored a book chapter evaluating the ethical obligations of attorneys when corporate clients knowingly promote false science, as in the climate disinformation campaign orchestrated by fossil fuel companies. And the pandemic illustrates with chilling clarity that in the aftermath of catastrophe— whether precipitated by disease or, increasingly over time, climate change—greater burdens and suffering are borne by low income communities, communities of color, and indigenous populations. Our Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies is presently championing an effort to persuade the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery, long used to justify the oppression of Indigenous populations and to support calls to end fossil fuel subsidies. We affirm our commitment to racial justice, social inclusion, sustainable development and solving the climate crisis. It is both a privilege and a responsibility to support our faculty, students and alumni as they work to develop and implement solutions to the many challenges that we face. Haub Environmental Law will continue to attract, nurture, and amplify the work of the talented individuals whose energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and expertise will be needed in the years to come. Sincerely,
Jason J. Czarnezki Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law; Executive Director & Associate Dean, Environmental Law Programs BA, University of Chicago; JD, University of Chicago. Specializes in natural resources, environmental regulation, ecolabeling, and green public procurement.
Katrina Fischer Kuh Haub Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law; Interim Executive Director & Associate Dean, Environmental Law Programs BA & JD, Yale. Specializes in climate change and sustainability. Co-editor of The Law of Adaptation to Climate Change: United States and International Aspects.
5
News Barbara L. Atwell Associate Professor of Law BA, Smith; JD, Columbia. Specializes in Bioethics and Medical Malpractice, Health Law, and Public Health Law.
Horace E. Anderson Jr. Named Ninth Dean of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University
Inga C. Caldwell Associate Director, Environmental Law Programs; Adjunct Professor of Law BA, Dartmouth; JD, Vermont Law School. Teaches natural resources law and science for environmental lawyers.
Elyse Diamond Director, Public Service Careers, PILC/CCPD; Environmental Law Programs Career Specialist; Adjunct Professor of Law JD, Fordham Law School. Specializes in setting the career and professional development strategy for, and advising, students and alumni who are interested in public sector careers.
In December 2019, Horace E. Anderson Jr. was appointed the ninth Dean of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Prior to this appointment, Anderson had been serving as Haub Law’s interim dean. The school has been thriving under his leadership, with increased enrollment and application numbers and successful new programs, such as the expansion of its part-time JD program to include an evening and weekend option. Anderson joined the Haub Law faculty in 2004, and served as the school’s academic dean from 2011 until his appointment last year as interim dean. He received his JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a BS in Economics (with a concentration in finance) from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. His areas of legal expertise include intellectual property, internet privacy, law and technology, and communications law.
7
Craig Hart Director, Pace Energy and Climate Center B.A., University of California at Berkeley; JD University of California at Berkeley; MS, New York University; PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Specializes in energy infrastructure finance and implementing decarbonization technologies.
Craig Hart Named New Executive Director of Pace Energy and Climate Center Craig A. Hart was named the new Executive Director of the Pace Energy Climate Center (PECC), effective November 15, 2019. Dr. Hart is a practitioner and scholar, with more than 15 years of applied experience leading projects and advising governments and project developers in energy infrastructure finance and implementing decarbonization technologies. He has advised governments on policies and regulation supporting renewables, energy efficiency, grid modernization and microgrids, and low carbon technologies for the fossil- fuel power generation sector. He has worked in the United States and with developing countries on climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. In addition, he has extensive teaching experience as a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University Energy Policy and Climate Program and at Temple University’s China Rule of Law program in Beijing. Dr. Hart earned a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researching decarbonization paths with the aim of preventing dangerous climate change, a bachelor’s and law degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and a master’s in economics from New York University.
Professor Alex Erwin to Join Haub Law as Visiting Assistant Professor in Spring 2021 Haub Law has hired Alex Erwin, a Teaching Fellow and Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona. He will join the Haub Law faculty for a year and a half beginning in January 2021. Professor Erwin’s research focuses primarily on wildlife conservation, genetics, and bridging the gaps among science, policy, and the law. He seeks to better understand and improve the American system of wildlife conservation from the ground up: from field work and wet-lab genetics to congressional acts and court cases. Professor Erwin has publications in both peer-reviewed scientific journals and law reviews. His article, Hybridizing Law: A Policy for Hybridization Under the Endangered Species Act, was recognized with an Honorable Mention in the 2018 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) as one of the top environmental policyrelevant articles from 2016-2017. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law. He is also a PhD candidate in the University of Arizona’s Genetics Graduate Interdisciplinary Program with a dissertation titled: “Conservation Genomics and Management Implications for Black-tailed Prairie Dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) and Mountain Lions (Puma concolor).” He expects to finish his PhD work before joining Haub Law. Erwin received his BS from Washington and Lee University double majoring in Biology and Biochemistry.
Margot Pollans Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Pace-NRDC Food Law Initiative BA, Columbia; JD, NYU; LLM, Georgetown. Focuses on environmental, food, and administrative law.
Professor Margot J. Pollans, Expert on Food Law & Sustainability, Granted Tenure Pace University’s Board of Trustees approved tenure for Professor Margot J. Pollans. She was also promoted from associate to full professor of law. Professor Pollans joined the Haub Law faculty in 2015.
Professor Pollans teaches environmental law, food law, administrative law, and property law. She is also the faculty director of the Pace- NRDC Food Law Initiative, a collaborative venture between Haub Law and the Natural Resources Defense Council that seeks to promote transitions to a just and sustainable food system by improving access to legal services for farmers and food businesses. Her academic work has appeared in a variety of journals including in the New York University Law Review, the Harvard Environmental Law Review, and the Wake Forest Law Review. Most recently, her article, The New Food Safety, (coauthored with Emily Broad Leib), was published in the California Law Review. She is also the coauthor of a casebook on Food Law, the first of its kind.
9
Haub Visiting Scholars Pace Environmental Law welcomed three Haub Visiting Scholars in 2020: Victor B. Flatt, the Dwight Olds Chair in Law and the Faculty Director of the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Center at the University of Houston Law Center; Richard Wallsgrove, Assistant Professor, William S. Richardson School of Law; and James R. May, Distinguished Professor of Law and coFounder and co-Director of the Dignity Rights Project and the Environmental Rights Institute at Widener University Delaware Law School. During his residency as a Haub Visiting Scholar, Professor Flatt presented his work on climate change and attorney ethics, participate in the Climate Justice for Future Generations petition to the ICJ, co-taught a class, and created a podcast. During his residency, Professor Wallsgrove met with Pace Energy & Climate Center’s faculty and staff to discuss the challenges in our clean energy transition, met with students, and connected with scholars and advocates working with other institutions in New York. During his residency, Professor May met with the faculty of the Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies to consider emerging mechanisms (such as human dignity) for addressing the world’s most pressing environmental problems. Environmental Graduate Research Fellows Program
(from top) Victor B. Flatt Richard Wallsgrove James R. May
Pace Environmental Law is pleased to welcome five graduate research fellows to its staff and LLM program in the 2020-21 academic year: Umair Saleem (Environmental Law Fellow), Shannon Peters (Global Environmental Law Fellow), Jenna Khoury-Hanna (Food and Agriculture Law Fellow), Yuriy Korol (Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Fellow) and Emma Lagle (Pace Energy and Climate Change Fellow). Each fellow works part-time in one of our programs or centers while earning an LLM in Environmental Law. The fellows work with our faculty and staff on innovative projects throughout the year. Past fellows have gone on to work at Riverkeeper, NRDC, AIG, Connecticut Fund for the Environment, the IUCN, and law firms. Applications for 2021-22 will open in January 2021. Please keep an eye on our website for more information.
E. Melanie DuPuis Chair and Professor of Environmental Studies & Science BA, Radcliffe; PhD, Cornell. Joined Pace from UC Santa Cruz to chair the Department of Environmental Studies and Science. Specializes in food systems and agriculture.
10
Alexander K. A. Greenawalt Professor of Law BA, Princeton; MA, Yale; JD, Columbia. Teaches international and administrative law. Researches international humanitarian law.
C
Checkout Professor Shelby Green and Professor Nicholas Robinson’s book, “Historic Preservation: Stories and Laws” was published in June 2020. The authors recount tales about staving off demolition and saving “old” houses, landscapes, churches, tribal indigenous sites, colonial mansions, art deco improvements and “modern” buildings. They pose tough questions for the future of historic preservation, both from the pressures of real estate development and the disruptions of climate change. Shelby D. Green Associate Professor of Law BS, Towson; JD, Georgetown. Specializes in real estate, historic preservation, and property law.
In Professor Karl Coplan’s book, “Live Sustainably Now,” he shares his personal journey of attempting to cut back on carbon without giving up the amenities of a suburban middle-class lifestyle. He chronicles the joys and challenges of a year on a carbon budget—kayaking to work, hunting down electric-car charging stations, eating a Mediterranean-style diet, and enjoying plenty of travel on weekends and vacations while avoiding longdistance flights.
Professors’ Recent Publications
Nicholas A. Robinson University Professor for the Environment BA, Brown; JD, Columbia. Has developed the field of environmental law since 1969. Served as legal advisor, White House Council on Environmental Quality; general counsel, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation; and legal advisor and chairman, Commission on Environmental Law, IUCN.
Karl S. Coplan Professor of Law; Co-Director, Environmental Litigation Clinic BA, Middlebury; JD, Columbia. Expert on constitutional and environmental law. Has litigated many successful public interest environmental lawsuits with the Environmental Litigation Clinic.
Coalitions Pace Environmental Law Traveling & Presenting Around the World
s
Professor David Cassuto was the Legal Observer for the Animal Legal Defense Fund for the CITES Conference of the Parties in Geneva in August 2019.
Professor David Cassuto was the keynote speaker at the November 2019 “Regulation and Environment” seminar held at the Universidad Cientifica of Peru in Lima. On June 22, 2020, Haub Law announced a new cooperation agreement with Universidad Cientifica of Peru to offer an accelerated Master of Laws (LL.M.) program. The program provides the opportunity for Cientifica students to enroll as full-time students in Haub Law’s LL.M. program after completing all but one year of their undergraduate LLB law degree at Cientifica. The accelerated LL.M. program will allow students to share their varied experiences and training in areas such as sustainable development, conservation and many others. David N. Cassuto Professor of Law; Director, BrazilAmerican Institute for Law & Environment BA, Wesleyan; MA, Indiana University; PhD, Indiana University; JD, Berkeley. Specializes in animal, water, and comparative law. Environmental Law, IUCN.
Professor Nicholas A. Robinson delivered a keynote address on “Bridging the Worlds” during Odyssey Polaris at the Hall of Knights in The Hague. Attorney Mathew Baird, Dean Thomas McHenry (Vermont Law School), Professor Qin Tainbao, Professor Wang Xi, and Professor Nicholas Robinson at the “International Workshop on Ecological Civilization and Global Environmental Governance” at Hainan University.
13
A (top middle) Haub student scholar Robin Happel represented the UNA USA and the Environmental Law Programs at the UN Youth Climate Summit.
Dr. Peter Lawrence from University of Tasmania presented on representation for future generations in international climate litigation.
Professors Ingvild Jakobsen and Elise Johansen visit from the University of Tromso.
Professor Jason Czarnezki presented on forest law in Paris, France for Agro Paris Tech.
Awards SJD Awarded to Tarini Mehta
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is pleased to announce the award of Doctor of Juridical Science to Tarini Mehta for her thesis “Environmental Governance of the Himalayan Region: Regional Cooperation as the Way Forward.�
Nicholas A. Robinson Award for Distinguished Environmental Achievement In lieu of gathering together to present a 2020 Nicholas A. Robinson Award this year, the Pace Environmental Law Alumni Association invited past Award recipients to chat via Zoom with our students and other members of the Pace/ Haub Environmental Law community. Panelists discussed their career paths and developments in the field of environmental law. The Nicholas A. Robinson Award is given in honor of Nicholas A. Robinson, University Professor on the Environment and Gilbert, Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law Emeritus, and founder of the Environmental Law Programs, whose commitment to and achievements in the field of environmental law are a source of inspiration for those dedicated to the betterment of our environment.
Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy The 2019 Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy was awarded in memoriam to Environmental Defenders who have lost their lives defending their land and the environment from the destructive practices of mining, logging and agribusiness industries, among others. This is the first time the Award has been given to a group, rather than an individual.
15
Skills
Clinics / Centers / Experiential Learning
Jennie Nolon Blanchard Senior Staff Attorney, Land Use Law Center; Adjunct Professor of Law BS, Cornell; JD/MEM, Pace/Yale. Focuses on the growth of urban centers, working closely with cities to address obstacles to redevelopment and sustainability.
Todd Ommen Managing Attorney, Environmental Litigation Clinic; Adjunct Professor of Law BA, Tulane; JD, Villanova. Joined Pace in 2016 after serving as Assistant Attorney General for New York State.
16
Michelle Land Clinical Associate Professor, Dyson College of Arts & Sciences BS, University of Guelph; JD, Pace. Specializes in environmental law and policy, wildlife biology, interdisciplinary education, and campus sustainability. Leads the Environmental Consortium of Colleges & Universities.
The Pace-NRDC Food Law Initiative is a collaboration between Pace’s Environmental Law Program and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Initiative supports the transition to a more just and sustainable food system by helping to strengthen food sovereignty in disadvantaged communities, fostering alternative models of food production and distribution, and promoting regenerative climate-friendly agriculture through direct legal services, focused legal training, and advocacy for systemic policy changes. Projects and news • The Food and Beverage Law Clinic, in partnership with Common Ground Farm, launched the “Farm to School Legal Toolkit: A Legal Guide for New York Farmers.” The Toolkit is a free legal guide created as a response to the lack of legal resources available to New York farmers interested in entering into farm to school arrangements. • In November 2019, the Pace-NRDC Food Law Initiative held an in-depth and comprehensive CLE program entitled “Law at the Intersection of Renewable Energy and Agriculture.” • The Pace-NRDC Food Law Initiative partnered with the National Young Farmers Coalition to host a legal “office hours” consultation program for farmers at the Vassar Barn in Poughkeepsie, NY. The event included 21 farmers, 8
attorneys, and 2 insurance specialists.
tremendous victory in favor of a very small not-for-profit called Friends of Wickers • Professors Creek Archeological Site Jonathan Brown (FOWCAS). The group and Shelby has been fighting Green and the for two decades to Pace-NRDC preserve a Native Food Law American historical Initiative partnered site in Dobbs Ferry, with Sustainable NY. After Port Chester FOWCAS Jonathan Brown Alliance to host Director, Food and Beverage Clinic; and the an evening legal Adjunct Professor of Law Village clinic in Port secured BA, UPenn; JD, NYU. Specializes Chester for small in food and beverage law and a walking agricultural law. restaurants and conservation other businesses easement at risk of displacement due protecting the property in to development. 2001, the homeowners association (HOA) which now • In response to COVID-19, owns the site, locked a gate the Pace-NRDC Food on a bridge, which prevented Law Initiative launched the access to a portion of the COVID-19 Legal Support conservation easement along Project to provide pro bono the Hudson River. PELC legal services by the Food sued the HOA on behalf and Beverage Law Clinic at of FOWCAS arguing that Haub Law and by attorneys the settlement agreement at Shearman & Sterling LLP required that the HOA allow to farms and food businesses access to the site. PELC affected by the crisis who defeated the initial motion to cannot afford market-rate dismiss and now has won legal services. on summary judgment. The victory secures access to the @pacefoodlaw site for all residents of Dobbs Ferry.
Students represent public interest groups as part of our award-winning, pioneering Environmental Litigation Clinic. Projects and news • The Clinic, on behalf of Riverkeeper Inc., was successful in its Article 78 proceeding compelling the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to produce documents under the New York Freedom of Information Law. • The Clinic scored a
• The Clinic served industrial facilities in upstate New York with notices of intent to sue. The facilities were not properly permitted for their storm water runoff. These storm water enforcement activities are vital to forcing industry to control against pollutants carried by rainwater to the state’s surface waters. • Each fall, Clinic interns conduct an annual mock trial before a jury of volunteer students from area schools. This year’s mock trial utilized the actual depositions, expert reports and hundreds of trial exhibits from a Clean Water Act lawsuit against an industrial poultry farm in Maryland. @PaceEnvClinic
The Land Use Law Center fosters the development of sustainable communities by promoting innovative land use strategies and dispute resolution techniques.
River Watershed Alliance worked with the Center to facilitate conversation to help communities implement strategies and next steps for protection of their watersheds. This was the first time the program was held virtually, and even online, this training is “building communities one conversation at a time.”
The Energy and Climate Center’s mission is to protect the earth’s environment by transforming the ways society supplies and consumes energy.
• Jessica Bacher, Projects and news Executive Director, presented at the American • In November 2019, the Bar Association, Pace Energy and Climate Jessica A. Bacher • The Land State and Local Center welcomed Craig Hart Executive Director, Land Use Law Use Law Government as the Executive Director. Center; Adjunct Professor of Law Center held Section, BS, University of Florida; JD, its 18th Land Use • The Pace Energy and annual Alfred Pace. Provides assistance to Institute panel, Climate Center (PECC) municipalities on land use, B. DelBello “Hot Topics: published “Estimating the distressed property remediation, Land Use and transit-oriented development, and Affordable Air Emissions of Stationary Sustainable Housing | Engine Generators under sea level rise. Specializes in Land Development Use Law, Advanced Land Use Law, Sustainability/ Two Megawatts.” The study Conference, and Sustainable Development Law. Resilience estimates that nearly 1 in “Building | Eminent 6 operating engines were the Infrastructure for our Domain & Takings.” installed prior to 1997, and Sustainable Future” on more than 40% of in-service December 5, 2019. Tom • Tiffany Zezula, engines were installed prior Murphy, Urban Land Deputy Director, to 2003. Institute Senior Resident continued to and Canizaro/Klingbeil present in the • The PECC is working Families Chair for Urban “Who Is My with the Government of Development, presented the Neighbor?” Palau to reform the Palau luncheon keynote address. A teach-in Public Utility Corporation, former mayor of Pittsburgh, seminar series. the Mayor Murphy has extensive The Land Use country’s sole Tiffany Zezula experience in revitalization Law Center electricity, Deputy Director, Land Use Law and what drives investment partnered with Center; Adjunct Professor of Law water and and ensures long-lasting the New York sewage utility. BS, Tulane; JD, Pace. Primary commitment. He was joined State Council The reform trainer of local officials, by the opening keynote of Churches aims to return environmentalists, and planners speaker, Thomas W. Smith, for the the statefor the Center. Coordinates the III, the executive director series, which owned utility national Land Use Leadership of the American Society of educates Alliance Training Program. to solvency Civil Engineers. Mr. Smith religious and includes and ASCE spoke about leaders about their role in comprehensive tariff future-scenario analysis that community planning and the reform, recapitalizing the allows us to anticipate the utilization of their religious utility through an intercoming changes and their property for affordable governmental policy loan, effects on infrastructure and housing and community overhauling management communities. space, including community and governance practices gardens. The teach-in series including setting KPIs • In May, local leaders from is also supported by the New for gender equity, and communities in the Roeliff York State Association for accelerating the adoption of Jansen, Saw Kill, and Affordable Housing. renewables and microgrids Wappinger Creek watersheds by evolving the utility’s @LandUseLC business model and law went through the Land Use Law Center’s Land Use reform promoting net Leadership Alliance Training metering and other policies. Program. The Hudson Projects and news
18
• The PECC, as a member and regulatory advisor of the Energy Efficiency for All New York coalition, is working on developing immediate and longer-term COVID-19 relief and recovery measures for New York residents, especially low- and moderate-income families, who have been hardest hit by COVID-19’s economic impacts. • In July 2020, PECC published “Zero Net Gas: A Framework for Managing Gas Demand Reduction as a Pathway to Decarbonizing the Building Sector,” with the support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. • PECC continues to work on halting and reversing the expansion of gas through advocacy before the New York Public Service Commission and building capacity within the environmental community on gas issues. @Paceenergy
A member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies (GCELS) engages in innovative projects addressing global environmental challenges. Projects and News • GCELS has been actively engaging our students and faculty to prepare for the World Conservation Congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). GCELS submitted nine motions for consideration and cosponsored over twenty other motions for other IUCN
Members. As one of only two U.S. law schools that are voting members of IUCN, Haub Law students and faculty members have been deeply involved in drafting, submitting, and in some cases appealing decisions on motions regarding food sovereignty, climate change, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, the zoonotic transmission of disease, and the need for IUCN to participate in fossil fuel phase outs. In so doing, students are gaining valuable hands-on experience with the process of international environmental law and policy-making. Jeffrey G. Miller
through the International Court of Justice. @GlobalCELS
The Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition, hosted by Pace Law and run by its students, draws hundreds of competitors and judges to this premier environmental moot court each year.
Professor Emeritus of Law 2020 Highlights • GCELS BA, Princeton; LLB, Harvard. Joined the faculty in 1987 after invited • In February, heading the US EPA’s national legendary over 300 environmental enforcement program and students, beginning the agency’s hazardous litigator Tony advisors, waste enforcement program. Oposa to attorneys orchestrate and judges an informational, training, participated in the 32nd and planning session on a Annual Competition, which proposed United Nations addressed water withdrawals General Assembly Resolution during drought conditions, requesting an Advisory the consultation requirement Opinion from the International under § 7 of the Endangered Court of Justice: “Under Species Act, 16 U.S.C. international law and in the § 1536, and the “take” face of the climate crisis, prohibition under § 9 of the what are the duties of States Endangered Species Act, § to future generations?” 1538. Students worked during the UN General Assembly • The final round of NELMCC to persuade countries to was judged by the Honorable support the resolution and Lisa Margaret Smith, a will continue this work over United States Magistrate the next year. Judge for the Southern District of New York, Judge • Global Law Fellow Kathie A. Stein, a U.S. Miranda Steed attended the Environmental Protection United Nations Framework Agency Environmental Convention on Climate Appeals Judge, and the Change 25th Conference Honorable Jane Branstetter of the Parties (COP 25) in Stranch of the U.S. Court of Madrid, Spain. At COP 25, Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Steed helped youth leaders from the Pacific Islands • Of 54 participating teams, organize a side-event at Florida State University the Moana Pacific Pavilion College of Law took first on seeking climate justice place, edging out the
19
University of Kansas School of Law and the American University Washington College of Law. @PaceLawNELMCC
David Cassuto presented “COVID & Federalism,” during the international seminar COVID-19: Ethical & Environmental Questions, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. @PaceBAILE
Housed jointly at Pace and the Getulio Vargas Foundation School of Law in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazil American Institute for Law and Environment (BAILE) advances environmental protection and sustainable development in the US and Brazil. Projects and news • On November 2019, BAILE, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, and the Columbia University Global Center in Rio de Janeiro convened a workshop entitled “Threats to the Brazilian Environment and Environmental Policy.” Faced with a reversal of extant environmental practices, members of the law faculties of Law at Columbia and Pace hope to increase understanding and raise awareness in the United States of the scope and severity of the environmental crisis in Brazil. Professor David Cassuto, Professor Romulo da Silveira R. Sampaio, and SJD Candidate Maria Antonia Tigre presented at the workshop. • In March 2020, Professor David Cassuto presented “Não Precisa de Pulmões Para Sufrir” at the 2nd International Congress on Environmental Law, Office of the Attorney General of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 2020. • In April 2020, Professor
20
The United Nations Environmental Diplomacy Practicum – a program unique to Pace Law – places students in internships with Permanent Missions to the United Nations. Recent highlights • The Practicum placed student interns at the UN Missions of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Senegal, and Sri Lanka, as well as with the Permanent Observer Mission of IUCN. Students had to move to virtual internships, helping the Missions to cope with the difficulties of virtual load work due to Covid-19. During the seminar component, students discussed the key issues and negotiations taking place at the UN subject to the limitations and modalities of work in response to the pandemic; in particular, consultations on the implementation of the U.N. General Assembly resolution 73/333 “Towards a Global Pact for the Environment” for strengthening the implementation of international environmental law.
The Washington, DC and New York Environmental Externship Programs give students the chance to gain crucial skills and knowledge while studying with experienced, dedicated practicing professors.
Recent placements • Washington: U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency; Animal Welfare Institute; Potomac Riverkeeper Network; EcoAgriculture Partners; U.S. Department of Justice (Environment and Natural Resources Division); U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (various offices); D.C. Department of Energy and Environment; and the Sierra Club. • New York: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Region 2); NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission; NYC Department of Environmental Protection; New York Environmental Law & Justice Project; New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (Region 2); Super Law Group; Waterkeeper Alliance; Earthjustice; and the NRDC.
Jill Gross Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Professor of Law AB, Cornell; JD, Harvard. Specializes in dispute resolution, ethics, and securities law.
Deborah Heller Acting Director of the Pace Law Library; Adjunct Professor of Law BS, Pace University; MA, John Jay College of Criminal Justice; JD, Pace Law; MLS, St. John’s University. Specializes in environmental legal research.
Future Environmental Law Professors Workshop Held every fall, the Future Environmental Law Professors Workshop brings visiting assistant professors, fellows, researchers, law clerks, practitioners and others together to learn about the environmental law teaching market. The Workshop covers a wide array of subtopics within the field (from animal law to energy law), as well as the history and development of the field of environmental law. It is designed to give
advice, inside perspectives, and feedback on the environmental law hiring process, as well as provide opportunities for mock interviews and job talk presentations. Participants have gone on to secure tenure track teaching positions around the country.
Law.” Our third keynote speaker, Professor Pat Parenteau (Vermont), discussed “Nature Deficit Disorder: A Reply to the Eco- Pragmatists.” Our fourth keynote speaker, Dean Hari Osofsky (Penn State) discussed “Pathways Forward for Cross- Cutting Environmental Law Heading into its seventh year, Scholarship.” Our fifth the Workshop has hosted keynote speaker, Professor keynote speakers who are Katrina M. Wyman (NYU) accomplished scholars in discussed “The Return of their field. Our inaugural the City.” Our sixth keynote keynote speaker, Professor speaker, Professor Sarah Richard Lazarus (Harvard), Krakoff (Colorado) discussed discussed “Environmental “A few Thoughts for Law Scholarship: Challenges Future Environmental Law and Opportunities.” Our Professors.” second keynote speaker, Professor Douglas Kysar (Yale), discussed “Making a Contribution in Environmental
Student Highlight Tala DiBenedetto is a 2020 graduate from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law with an Advanced Certificate in Environmental Law. She received the Bohn Vergari Public Service Award for the Best Environmental Law Student. While at Pace, she worked in the Environmental Litigation Clinic, was a case note and comment editor on the Pace Law Review, and was President of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund. She interned at PETA, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Harvard Animal Law and Policy Clinic. She co-authored with Prof. David Cassuto Suffering Matters: NEPA, Animals, and the Duty to Disclose, 42 University of Hawaii L. Rev. 2 (2020). Additionally, her paper Coordinating NHPA and NEPA to Protect Wildlife will be published in William & Mary Environmental Law Review, and her paper Wildlife as Culture – Using IHRL to Protect Global Biodiversity will be published in New York International Law Review.
Tala DiBenedetto
21
Recap 2019–2020 Events
Professor John Nolon moderates the Port Chester panel at the November 8, 2019 “Environmental Justice in Westchester Communities: Addressing the Deepening Challenges” event, co-sponsored by the Federated Conservationists of Westchester County.
Roger Martella, General Counsel for General Electric’s Environment, Health and Safety operations, delivers the keynote address at the February 19, 2020 “Climate Disruption and Decarbonization Conference,” co-sponsored by ABA SEER. During this one-day CLE program, panelists took on topics including local law and decarbonization, renewable energy transition, and attorneys’ ethical responsibilities regarding decarbonization.
The winners of the 32nd Annual Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Moot Court Competition celebrate with NELMCC’s first ever all-female panel, Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith of the Southern District of New York, and Environmental Appeals Board Judge Kathie Stein.
The Environmental Law Society hosts an Eco-Anxiety Event.
John R. Nolon Professor of Law; Founder, Land Use Law Center BA, University of Nebraska; JD, University of Michigan. Expert on land use, property, and sustainable development law.
In September 2019, Verrill Dana LLP hosted the Pace Environmental Law Alumni Association’s Boston Alumni and Friends Reception. At the Reception, we celebrated alumna Karen Mignone’s election as the Chair of ABA SEER for 2019-2020.
Professors Cassuto, Narula, and Brown (not pictured) presented at the Dyson College Institute for Sustainability and the Environment’s Fourth Resilience Summit on “The Future of Meat.”
Smita Narula Haub Distinguished Professor of International Law; Co-Director, Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies BA, Brown; MA, Brown; JD, Harvard. Specializes in international human rights, right to food, environmental justice.
20th Annual Gilbert & Sarah Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law: “Lights Out - Climate Resilience and Energy Justice” by Professor Robert Verchick, Gauthier-St. Martin Chair in Environmental Law at Loyola University New Orleans.
23
Curriculum Internationally Acclaimed Legal Education: Richard L. Ottinger Dean Emeritus; Co-Director, Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies; Founder, Faculty Supervisor, Energy & Climate Center BA, Cornell; LLB, Harvard. Previously a US Congressman (chaired Energy Conservation & Power Subcommittee) and a Peace Corps founder. Chairs the Energy and Climate Group, IUCN Commission on Environmental Law. Ann Powers Professor Emerita of Law BA, Indiana University; JD, Georgetown. Specializes in ocean and coastal law and international environmental law.
Darren Rosenblum Professor of Law BA, UPenn; JD, UPenn; MIA, Columbia. Directs the international law programs at Pace. Teaches and researches in the areas of corporate, international, and comparative law.
Administrative Law Advanced Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Advanced Research Skills for Environmental Law Agriculture Law and the Environment Animal Law Climate Adaptation and the Law Climate Change Law Comparative Environmental Law Comparative Environmental Law – Brazil Field Course Conservation Law Current Challenges in Environmental Law Disaster Law and Emergency Preparedness Energy Law Environmental Litigation and Toxic Torts Environmental Law in Commercial Transactions Environmental Dispute Resolution Environmental Justice Environmental Litigation Clinic Environmental Skills and Practice: Clean Water Act Environmental Law Survey Externship – D.C. Environmental Law Externship – NYS Environmental Law Food and Beverage Law Clinic Food and Beverage Law Seminar Food Systems Law Guided Research Hazardous Waste Historic Preservation Human Rights and the Environment International Environmental Law Land Use Law Legislative and Regulatory Process Natural Resources Law Ocean and Coastal Law Pace Environmental Law Review Editorship Public Health Law Science for Environmental Lawyers Sustainable Business and the Environment Sustainable Development Law Survey United Nations Environmental Diplomacy Practicum Water Rights Law
Degree Programs JD with Certificate in Environmental Law JD with Concentration in Land Use and Real Estate Law LLM in Environmental Law LLM, Energy and Climate Change Specialization LLM, Land Use and Sustainable Development Specialization LLM, Global Environmental Law Specialization SJD in Environmental Law
Joint Degree Programs JD/MEM and JD/MF with Yale School of the Environment JD/MS in Environmental Policy with Bard Center for Environmental Policy JD/LLM in Environmental Law JD/MBA with Pace University JD/MEP with Pace University JD/MPA with Pace University JD/MA with Sarah Lawrence College
25
Pace is committed to a sustainable campus. See our sustainability policy at www.law.pace.edu/sustainability
#SocialJustice #EnvironmentalJustice
@PaceEnviroLaw @HaubEnviroLaw
facebook.com/PaceEnviroLaw
www.law.pace.edu/environment
Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University 78 North Broadway White Plains, NY 10603
20 – 2021 Leadership Report