Annual Report on the Pace Law School Environmental Law Program • Fall 2013
From Local to Global Carrying on a distinguished environmental law legacy
Dedication of Richard Ottinger Hall, April 30, 2013
events
Coming up in 2013-14
Not in the area? Join us by streaming our events live! Westchester County Executive Candidate Sustainability Forum September 23, 7:30-9:00 pm at Pace Law School
Climate Talk Before the Climate Talks Discussion with His Excellency, Mr. Marcin Korolec, Poland’s Minister of the Environment and President of COP 19 September 24, 4:00-6:00 pm at Pace Law School
Distinguished Young Scholar Lecture of 2013 Featuring Professor Sarah Schindler of Maine Law September 25, 12:00-2:00 pm at Pace Law School 14th Annual Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture and Investiture Ceremony
New York City Rules! Regulatory Tools and the Environment Presented by Professor Jason Czarnezki September 25, 5:00-6:00 pm at Pace Law School
Community Microgrids in Connecticut Hosted by the Energy and Climate Center and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection October 29 in Hartford, CT
Leading Communities Toward a Resilient Future Land Use Law Center’s 12th Annual Land Use & Sustainable Development Conference December 6 at the New York State Judicial Institute at Pace Law School
National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition February 20-22 at Pace Law School
Vanderbilt Law Professor J.B. Ruhl 19th Annual Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law March 26 at Pace Law School
For more exciting upcoming events visit www.law.pace.edu/environment
10
11 19
contents News from the Center for Environmental Legal Studies 2 Conferences and Lectures 2012-13
4
Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic
6
Pace Energy and Climate Center
8
This 35th year of the Pace environmental law program brought much to celebrate. The American Bar Association Section on Environment, Energy and Resources bestowed its highest honor, the Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law Award, upon two Pace Law recipients, and its Distinguished Environmental Advocates Awards upon two recent Pace Law alumni. In April sunshine, we gathered to name our classroom building Ottinger Hall after Dean Emeritus Richard Ottinger. As our cover testifies, the ceremony was full of laughter and reminiscence as Dick and others spoke to a large crowd packed with Dick’s associates from his founding days at the Peace Corps, his terms in the US House of Representatives, and his deanship at Pace Law. Dick has left a lasting legacy with the Pace Energy and Climate Center, his work with the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, and many other initiatives. Best of all, he’s still going strong in his office at E-House, and just published another book on renewable energy law around the world. Our founders, led by Professors Nicholas Robinson, Dick Ottinger, Jeffrey Miller, and others now retired, are inspiring examples of thinking globally and acting locally. The local/global view is reflected in our courses, our externships, our clinic, our centers, and faculty and student work ranging from Westchester County and the Hudson watersheds, to Colorado and North America, to Brazil and China, the United Nations, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. After 35 years, the vision is going strong.
Message from the Assistant Dean and Director
Message from the Assistant Dean and Director
All the best,
Land Use Law Center for Sustainable Development
10
Global Environmental Law Program
12
Faculty News
14
Environmental Alumni News
19
National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition
20
Pace Environmental Law Review
21
Fall 2013 Lin Harmon, Assistant Dean and Director, Environmental Law Programs Laura Jensen, Assistant Director, Environmental Law Programs Pace Law School, 78 North Broadway, White Plains, NY 10603 Phone: (914) 422-4693 • Fax: (914) 422-4261 • E-mail: ljensen@law.pace.edu Available online at www.law.pace.edu/environment
news from the Center
news from the Center for Environmental Legal Studies A Big Year for ABA SEER Awards
The National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition received the American Bar Association Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy (organization) award in August. The award recognizes organizations that have distinguished themselves in environmental law and policy, contributing significant leadership in improving the substance, process or understanding of environmental ABA SEER Chair Alex Dunn with NELMCC administrator Leslie Crincoli and protection and sustainable Professor Jeff Miller after the award ceremony development. NELMCC has been Ottinger founded the Pace Energy was also the President of the helping to prepare environmental and Climate Center in 1987, coEnvironmental Law Institute litigators nationwide for over founded the Peace Corps, and for eight years. Congratulations, twenty-five years. served sixteen years in the U.S. Leslie! House of Representatives. Friends, More congratulations are due family and colleagues from across to Janice Dean (JD ’05) and the nation gathered to honor David Johnson (LLM ’06) on receiving ABA SEER Distinguished him at the official naming of the building. Environmental Advocates Awards
Leslie Carothers (far left) receiving congratulations upon her Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law
Leslie Carothers, Pace Law’s Scholar-in-Residence and a great friend of our environmental program, was also honored with the American Bar Association Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy (individual) at the same event. Leslie’s remarkable career in environmental law has spanned the public, corporate, and non-profit sectors. She
2
Center for Environmental Legal Studies
this spring. The award recognizes lawyers “for accomplishments and contributions to the development of law, policy, and programs in the areas of energy and the environment . . . above and beyond those of their peers.” The Pace community is also especially proud of Janice for her instrumental volunteer work in the wake of Superstorm Sandy in the Rockaways.
Dedication of Richard Ottinger Hall
On April 30th, Pace Law School dedicated its main classroom building to Dean Emeritus Richard Ottinger for his lifetime of public service and leadership. Dean
Clinic Award for Perseverance in Coal Mining Case
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth honored Clinic Professors Karl Coplan and Daniel Estrin and Clinic student attorneys Krista Tenney (JD ’13) and Braden Smith (JD ’13) with the Friends of Evelyn Williams Award for their work in reaching a landmark settlement with a coal company (ICG) in Kentucky. The award specifically recognizes friends of the group who “persevered against great obstacles over time to win an important victory.”
Jason J. Czarnezki Pace is excited to welcome Professor Jason Czarnezki to our faculty. Jason comes to us from Vermont Law School, where he served as faculty director of the U.S.-China Partnership for Environmental Law and as a faculty fellow in its Center for Agriculture and Food Systems. He has served as a Fulbright Scholar at Sun Yatsen University in Guangzhou, China, and a Visiting Fellow at the Uppsala University Faculty of Law in Sweden. At Pace, Jason will serve as the Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law – a title originally bestowed upon Professor Nicholas Robinson.
Preservation Law. She is a board member of the Jay Heritage Center, which is dedicated to preserving this National Historic Landmark and adjacent marshlands using geothermal energy and green management practices. It features educational programs in American History, Social Justice, Landscape Conservation and Environmental Stewardship.
Shelley Welton began teaching our Eco-markets and Trading course on non-regulatory, marketbased approaches to solving environmental problems. She is the Deputy Director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law and the Earth Institute Climate Law Fellow. Amy Mehta (LLM ’10) joined the Pace adjunct faculty this summer to teach two courses in the Environmental Summer Program: “Introduction to International Environmental Law” and “Introduction to Environmental Issues at the United Nations.” Both courses brought students to the UN on field trips and received rave reviews!
news from the Center
Comings and Goings in the Environmental Law Program
Photo: Jeffrey Johnson
Elizabeth Burleson Our friend and colleague, Elizabeth Burleson, has stepped down from her professorship to attend to family matters and launch a new environmental research initiative. We miss Betsy’s cheerful smile in New Staff Preston Hall and send our best The Pace Energy and Climate wishes to her in her new endeavors. Center recently brought on Jordan New Adjuncts Gerow (JD ’13) as an Energy and Megan Joplin (JD ’04) has joined Climate Change Policy Advisor and Pace Law’s extensive experiential Nick Martin as an Energy Policy Shelby D. Green and clinical program to supervise Associate. Andrea Cerbin (JD ’12) CELS is delighted students in the regular year joined the Center last fall as an to welcome Environmental Externship, in Energy and Climate Change Policy Professor Shelby which students intern with federal Advisor and Staff Attorney. Green, long-time and state environmental agencies Pace real estate law and other organizations. She is professor, into the environmental law fold. Shelby now an Assistant Regional Attorney at the Department of Environmental teaches our summer and semester Conservation, Region II. courses in Historic and Cultural
Pace offers the only environmental law SJD in the nation; graduates of the program are prepared for academic teaching and scholarship careers. Pace Law School
3
Conferences and Lectures
conferences and Lectures 2012-13 Each year, Pace hosts a number of exciting conferences, lectures, and workshops that bring experts from every area of the environmental field to campus. Here are some highlights: Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law: Inside EPA
On March 12, Georgetown Law Professor Heinzerling presented her lecture, “Inside EPA,” at this annual event honoring the memory and work of Lloyd Garrison, known for Lisa Heinzerling championing Scenic Hudson in the battle to preserve Storm King Mountain. She spoke on the complex and sometimes disconcerting relationship between the EPA and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Her article on this subject will be published in the Pace Environmental Law Review.
Kerlin Lecture: The Executive and the Environment: A Look at the Last Five Governors of New York
Delayed a few months by Superstorm Sandy, Dean Patricia Salkin of Touro Law School visited Patricia Salkin campus at the end of January to speak on the role of governors of New York State in protecting the environment. She argued that advocates should focus more of their efforts to implement progressive environmental policy on the governor who controls dozens of agencies and resources - rather than appealing to the more than 200 members of the state legislature.
Victor Dover giving a keynote address at the Land Use Law Center’s annual conference
4
Center for Environmental Legal Studies
Places for People: Strategies and Funding for Sustainable Communities
On December 7, the Land Use Law Center’s 11th annual Land Use and Sustainable Development Conference brought together more than 200 attorneys, planners, and local leaders to learn about national, regional, and local innovations, challenges, and best practices. During the conference, the Center released its Technical Guidance Manual for Sustainable Neighborhoods, created in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
Microgrids in New England: A Workshop Series for Communities and Stakeholders
The Pace Energy and Climate Center hosted a workshop in October to explore the societal benefits and technical challenges of the use of microgrids in the northeastern states.
The Hurricane Sandy blackout spurred interest in microgrids (David Shankbone, Wikimedia)
Turning Local Organic Wastes into Vehicle Fuel: An Environmental and Economic Opportunity for New York State Communities
Also in October, the Pace Energy and Climate Center and Energy Vision assembled a workshop to discuss the opportunities and obstacles associated with converting organic wastes to transportation fuel. Use of biomethane or renewable natural gas (RNG) reduces fossil fuel consumption, GHG emissions, and buildup of otherwise useable organic municipal waste. Representatives from the municipal and private sectors in Canada and the United States presented case studies describing the environmental and economic aspects of this growing technology: conversion of gases from landfills, wastewater treatment plants, and anaerobic digesters.
In February, the Pace Energy and Climate Center held a free conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in partnership with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and the DOE’s Northeast Clean Energy Application center. Rob Thornton, President and CEO of the International District Energy Association, spoke on “Community Energy: Essential Infrastructure for Delivering Clean Energy Benefits” and the importance of efficient energy production and transmission through, for example, combined heat and power (CHP). Panelists addressed technical challenges of interfacing with the main grid. Speakers included Brian Swett, Chief of Environment and Energy, City of Boston, and David Cash, Commissioner, Massachusetts DPU.
food and agriculture law CLE to address legal issues affecting the local food movement in the New York City and Hudson Valley regions. Topics included labeling and cottage food operation laws among many others. Lawyers, local farmers and those active in the local food movement attended.”
Putting a Price on Carbon: The Social Cost of Carbon in U.S. Climate Policy
In May, the Pace Energy and Climate Center and the Bard Center for Environmental Policy hosted a panel on the Pace Law campus in White Plains. Participants discussed the economic realities and daily financial impact associated with Superstorm Sandy clean-up, rising food prices, and increased heating and cooling costs.
Conferences and Lectures
Capturing the Benefits of Microgrids and District Energy Systems for Communities
A Clean Fuel Sector for the Northeast & Mid-Atlantic: Policy Options and Immediate Actions to Reduce Transportation Emissions
Also in February, the Pace Energy and Climate Center hosted an event to engage state policy makers and environmental professionals on a clean fuel sector and a national low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Participants discussed the elements of an LCFS, the lessons learned from planning California’s LCFS, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic’s unique design needs, and immediate actions to reduce GHG emissions.
Survey of Local Food Law
In March, the Pace Centers for Environmental Legal Studies and Continuing Legal Education held a Sandy damage shows social costs of carbon (Coast Guard)
A farmers’ market (Tammy Farrugia, Wikimedia)
Pace Law School
5
Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic
Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic Pace Law student attorneys have been hard at work with Pace Environmental Law Clinic Professors Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Karl Coplan and Daniel Estrin on approximately twenty unique legal and administrative cases over the past year. Three of the Clinic’s more active matters are profiled below. Challenging EPA’s “Water Transfers Rule”
The Clinic has been involved in polluted water transfer issues for approximately fifteen years, representing the plaintiffs in the Catskill Mountains Chapter of Trout Unlimited v. City of New York litigation, which, after two trips to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, resulted in a $5.5 million penalty against the City of New York and an injunction requiring the City to obtain a NPDES permit regulating its discharges of polluted water from the Shandaken Tunnel into the Upper Esopus Creek, a renowned trout stream in the Catskill Mountains. In response to this litigation and similar cases in Florida, EPA promulgated its “Water Transfers Rule” in 2008, exempting transfers of polluted water between distinct waters of the United States from the Clean Water Act’s (“CWA”) NPDES permit requirement. Thus, salt water can be transferred into fresh water, sediment-laden water can be sent into clear drinking water reservoirs, warm waters can be
pumped into cold water habitats, chemical-laden waters can be dumped into farm and ranch irrigation water, and invasive species can be transferred into waters not yet infested. The Clinic argues that this violates the fundamental “objective” of the CWA to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.” In 2008, the Clinic filed suit against EPA to challenge the Water Transfers Rule on behalf of a dozen clients, including Trout Unlimited, National Wildlife Federation, Environment America, Waterkeeper Alliance and Riverkeeper. After a lengthy battle over whether original jurisdiction exists in the courts of appeals under the CWA or the district courts pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit dismissed a number of consolidated petitions for lack of jurisdiction. Earlier this year, the Clinic filed a motion for summary judgment in its action pending in the Southern District of New York. Clinic students
Esopus Creek near Shandaken, NY (Daniel Case, Wikimedia)
6
Center for Environmental Legal Studies
completed a briefing on this motion and crossmotions for summary judgment filed by EPA and several intervening defendants over the summer.
Protecting Public Parkland and Open Space in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods
Spring Creek Park is dedicated New York City parkland located along the waterfront near East New York, Brooklyn and Howard Beach, Queens. However, for the past twelve years, twenty acres of the park have been fenced off by New York City’s Department of Sanitation to be used as a solid waste management facility. Since 2003, the Clinic has been working with its client, the NY/NJ Baykeeper, to compel the city to return this parkland to the public for recreational use.
After numerous administrative proceedings and court cases, including an adjudicatory hearing that spanned more than two years, the Clinic successfully obtained an opinion from an ALJ (judge) recommending that the NYS DEC deny the permit to the city. Three years later, the DEC Commissioner overrode the ALJ and directed that the permit be issued despite earlier factual findings.
Dairy CAFO (SRAP Project)
Fighting New York State’s Deregulation of Agricultural Pollution Controls
In August 2012, Governor Cuomo convened his “Yogurt Summit,” a meeting between government officials, yogurt industry representatives and dairy farmers to determine how New York State might take better economic advantage of the recent Greek yogurt “boom.” At the end of the Yogurt Summit, the administration announced its intention to modify New York State regulations to allow certain dairy concentrated animal feeding operations (“CAFOs”) to operate without some state permits. The CAFOs would not need to comply with CWA protections when applying manure in fields, which would threaten to contaminate surface and ground water. Last fall, the Clinic’s clients contested the proposed changes. Nevertheless, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) proceeded with the deregulation. In July, the Clinic and its co-counsel, Earthjustice, filed a hybrid Article 78 proceeding/declaratory judgment action against DEC in State Supreme Court on behalf of numerous clients, including Riverkeeper, Waterkeeper Alliance, Sierra Club and Citizens Campaign for the Environment. The Clinic and its co-counsel raise a number of claims against the state’s deregulation under the state’s Water Pollution Control Law and the federal CWA. Clinic
The Clinic has now filed an Article 78 proceeding in Supreme Court, Kings County, challenging the issuance of the solid waste management permit. It has also filed a separate declaratory judgment action on behalf of NY/NJ Baykeeper and local residents against the City of New York challenging its misuse of parkland under New York’s common law public trust doctrine, which requires state legislative approval, plainly conferred, before dedicated municipal parkland may be used for non-park purposes.
Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic
The Clinic expects that the district court will schedule oral argument on the current motions sometime this fall. Numerous Clinic Legal Interns, including Ben Lowenthal (3L) and Braden Smith (3L) this past year, have previously addressed the courts in this case. The Clinic intends to have its student attorneys address the court in support of its clients’ summary judgment motion at oral argument.
legal interns will complete a briefing of the case this fall, and the Clinic expects a decision in 2014.
Dumping human waste at Spring Creek Park (Geoffrey Croft, NYC Park Advocates)
Both the Article 78 proceeding and the declaratory judgment action have been fully briefed and were argued to a New York Supreme Court Justice by Clinic Legal Intern Nicole Sasaki (2L) in June 2013. The Clinic expects that decisions on these lawsuits will be issued this fall.
Pace Law School
7
Pace Energy and Climate Center
Pace Energy and Climate Center The Pace Energy and Climate Center is a legal and policy think tank based at Pace Law School. It brings together lawyers, aspiring lawyers, economists, and technical and policy analysts to find solutions to our energy and climate change challenges. The Center has five ongoing projects: community energy, energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate change and fuels and transportation. Community Energy
The Center’s Community energy project promotes local energy solutions that reduce energy use, costs, and carbon pollution, while also making the electric system more resilient in the face of intense storms. Community energy brings together 25 years of
study will identify the barriers to clean, reliable local grid arrangements and ways that New York State can foster microgrid development. • The Center is working closely with New York City, Ithaca and several communities in Connecticut and Massachusetts to foster development of clean, reliable microgrids that include deep energy efficiency, distributed generation, renewable energy and smart grid applications to manage demand on the system.
Energy Efficiency
The Center’s energy efficiency efforts are focused on improving the performance of energy efficiency programs in the Northeast. For example, this past year the Center issued an assessment of New York’s “15 by 15” policy, which aims to meet 15% of total electricity demand through energy efficiency. The assessment included recommendations to improve the program. A local microgrid in Sendai, Japan (Wikimedia)
experience fostering clean distributed generation, energy efficiency, renewables and smart grid demand management to assist communities in taking charge of their energy future through microgrids, combined heat and power (CHP), and demand response. Community Energy’s ongoing projects include:
Renewable Energy
The Center has been central to progress on renewable energy development in the region. This past year, Pace led a coalition of supporters for Governor Cuomo’s
• The Center, in partnership with the University of Massachusetts Amherst, houses the U.S. Department of Energy’s Northeast CHP application center. In this capacity, the Center’s professionals work to help CHP developers in the region overcome challenges to seize the many opportunities that this approach to electricity generation presents. • The Center was selected to lead a research team to develop a New York State microgrids study. The
8
Center for Environmental Legal Studies
Rooftop solar installation in NYC (EERE)
Climate Change
The Center convenes or advises numerous multistate and multi-stakeholder efforts to engage the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency on forthcoming carbon pollution standards. Among these efforts are: the Midwestern EPA Rules Collaborative involving state officials, utilities, electricity generators and environmental groups from the Midwest; the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) EPA Rules Collaborative, which brings together RGGI state officials and stakeholders to promote the RGGI model for reducing carbon pollution for power plants; and North America 2050, which brings together state officials from 20 states.
Transportation and Fuels
This past year, the Center held workshops for regional leaders on transitioning to a low-carbon transportation sector. Current efforts include engaging both utilities and regulatory agencies to make the Northeast more electric-vehicle friendly.
Pace Energy and Climate Center
solar energy initiative, New York Sun. This fall, the Center will release an assessment of New York’s renewable portfolio standard, and will also actively engage efforts to spur offshore wind development.
Staff and Students Team Up for ConEdison Rate Proceeding Earlier this year, New York City’s utility, Consolidated Edison Company, or Con Edison, filed a petition with the New York Public Service Commission for an increase in the rates it charges customers for electricity delivery. As it has done in the past, our Pace Energy and Climate Center intervened in the process, creating a team of staff and students to engage the issues important to the Center: energy efficiency, distributed generation, smart grid, and electric-vehicle friendly rates. After efforts to settle all issues in the proceeding failed, administrative litigation followed. Center Staff Attorney Andrea Cerbin, 3L John Bowie, and 2L Erik Roth, prepared and served discovery requests, responded to the discovery requests of other parties, drafted pre-filed testimony by Center experts with the help of a veteran attorney, and conducted cross-examination of witnesses at the hearings and drafted a post-hearing brief. According to 3L John Bowie, “We stood sideby-side with veteran energy lawyers and actively participated in settlement discussions and administrative litigation. Working as part of the Energy and Climate Center team has been the most rewarding experience of my law school career.” 2L Erik Roth said “I never expected
I’d actually cross-examine witnesses and draft actual pleadings in law school. The Energy and Climate Center has prepared me for practice by actually letting me practice as part of an expert experienced team.”
2L Erik Roth preparing to cross examine a witness for ConEd
The Center’s team hopes that a decision in the proceeding will mean a friendlier environment for clean distributed generation and electric vehicles, and that New York City will see a sizeable microgrid project arise with ConEd’s active assistance. Whatever the outcome, however, Pace Law students Bowie and Roth take away key real world experience!
Pace Law School
9
Land Use Law Center
Land Use Law Center
for Sustainable Development Established in 1993, the Land Use Law Center is dedicated to fostering the development of sustainable communities through the promotion of innovative land use strategies and collaborative decision-making techniques, as well as leadership training, research, education, and technical assistance. Conserving Water in Colorado
The Land Use Law Center is pleased to announce that it will bring its innovative and practical Land Use Leadership Alliance (LULA) Training Program to Colorado this fall. The program will focus on finding land use solutions to the challenges posed by growing populations and limited water resources in Colorado’s Front Range. Specially selected community leaders from five municipalities will attend four days of training to learn how to develop strategies to accomplish policy objectives and to carry them out
effectively at home. During the LULA program, participants will create new support networks, identify successful land use techniques, and develop water-smart local strategies for growth. Since 1995, the Center has graduated over 3,000 leaders across five states from its LULA training programs, and over ninety percent of graduates report that they went on to implement one or more of the techniques taught in the program. The Colorado LULA has been made possible free of charge to participants through the Center’s collaboration with Western Resource Advocates and other partners, including the Gates Family Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. Tiffany Zezula (JD ’03), the Center’s Managing Director of Training, will run the LULA with Pace Law Professor and the Center’s founder, John R. Nolon. Jennie Nolon Blanchard (JD/MEM ’08) is developing training materials for the program, working with a team of Pace Law students doing significant research on the integration of land use planning and water supply planning.
Robert Harris (JD ’07) and Jorge Figueroa (JD/MEM ’08) graduated from Pace Law after working with the Land Use Law Center. Today, they work for Western Resources Advocates in Boulder, Colorado. When Western Resources Advocates began to examine the disconnect between water policy and local land use practices in the Denver area, Jorge and Rob knew just who to call for help, and the Land Use Law Center was happy to work with two of its alumni. Jorge has been a water policy analyst with Western Resources Advocates since 2010. Robert has been a staff attorney with Western Resources Advocates since 2008, working mainly on water policy issues with federal permitting systems and state water law. A reservoir in the Colorado Rockies (Scott Bauer, Wikimedia)
10 Center for Environmental Legal Studies
Creating Sustainability in New Jersey Communities
The Center is working on increasing the actions, guidance, and resources in the program’s land use and transportation toolkit. It is also creating a community typology framework and self-assessment tool to help municipalities determine the areas most appropriate for local action. The Center is half-way through the two-year project and will soon host a special Land Use Leadership Alliance (LULA) Training Program to teach New Jersey municipalities the most effective way to use the new and improved toolkit.
Land Use Law Center
Among its many activities this year, the Land Use Law Center has been busy expanding one of the few tools for municipalities to rate themselves on sustainability and identify areas where they need to improve their efforts. The Center teamed up with the College of New Jersey to update and improve the Sustainable Jersey certification program—a program for municipalities in New Jersey seeking to improve their environmental sustainability. The program provides guidance and tools for municipalities to take actions toward becoming a more sustainable community, ultimately leading to certification.
The Center is also working to create a clinic with Yale where students examine the gaps in regulation of the local impacts of hydrofracking and what can be done about it. The Center hopes to draft model hydrofracking rules for municipalities and states setting out their options in regulating this extractive industry while showing the effect (one way or the other) on the environment. The Center and its staff and students will provide the legal data and the Yale staff and students will provide the related scientific data. Jessica Bacher (JD ’03), the Center’s Managing Director of Research, will eventually oversee the clinic.
Linking Science with Local Hydrofracking Controls
After Professor John Nolon and then-2L Steve Gavin presented on the tension between state and local regulation of hydrofracking at Case Western Law School last year, others began to take notice of their identification of state and municipal powers to regulate that industry. The Land Use Center has now taken this research a step further by partnering with the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Yale Climate and Energy Institute to host a workshop on research done at Pace and Yale. The workshop will be held prior to the Center’s Annual Land Use & Sustainable Development Conference in early December. They also plan to release a white paper linking science with local hydrofracking controls in March.
Twentieth Meeting of the Corporation Counsel’s Roundtable
In May, the Land Use Law Center completed the 20th meeting of its Corporation Counsel’s Roundtable (CCR). The CCR began in 2009 as a way to address the many shared legal issues faced by the cities participating in the Center’s Mayors’ Redevelopment Roundtable - a consortium of cities in the MidHudson Valley Region containing 500,000 people, 15% of whom live below the poverty level. As part of the CCR, the Center facilitates a bimonthly discussion among attorneys representing these communities to discuss complex land use, environmental, and municipal law issues associated with distressed property remediation, fair and affordable housing, transit oriented development, sustainable building, and disaster recovery. Pace Law students regularly prepare research papers and materials for these roundtables, attend the meetings, and interact with municipal attorneys, sometimes serving as interns in their offices.
Marcellus Shale hydrofracking site (USGS, Wikimedia)
Pace Law School 11
Global Environmental Law Program
Global Environmental Law Program Pace continues to make a difference internationally through its many global educational initiatives. Pace students learn hands on how international environmental law and policy are made at the United Nations and abroad. Faculty are world leaders in environmental education. Dictionary of Environmental and Climate Change Law
The Dictionary of Environmental and Climate Change Law (Edward Elgar 2013) hit the shelves this spring. This landmark book contains definitions of environmental legal terms with Mandarin and Pinyin translations in order to facilitate conversations on environmental law and policy between English and Mandarin speakers. Professors Nicholas Robinson, Wang Xi (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), and Lin Harmon along with Sarah Wegmueller (JD/MEM ’14) and teams of students and faculty at Pace and SJTU, including Laura Jensen (JD ’11/LLM ’12), worked on this project. Faculty and students at SJTU are currently embarking on phase two of the project, the Mandarin-to-English counterpart.
“Introduction to International Environmental Law,” and “Introduction to Environmental Issues at the United Nations” were taught by Pace Law alumni Amy Mehta (LLM ’11) and Shakeel Kazmi (SJD ’12), who work in the field, as well as guest lecturer diplomats from the UN. Students joined us in the heart of Manhattan from as far away as Argentina, Brazil, China, Mexico, and the Netherlands.
He Tapuwae: The Search for Environmental Justice In late June, Pace Center for Environmental Legal Studies delegates Professor Nicholas Robinson, Dean Emeritus Richard Ottinger, Associate Director Laura Jensen, and graduate student Wang Pian Pian
Training International Lawyers
In June and July, Pace hosted lawyers and interested professionals from around the world for a very special series of courses that brought participants to the United Nations while teaching them about international environmental law. The courses, “Introduction to Climate Change Negotiations,”
A view of the North Island of New Zealand, where Pace faculty and students attended the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Colloquium
joined several alumni at the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law’s Colloquium at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. The professors presented their paper, co-authored with Professor Wang Xi of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, entitled Environmental Governance: Assessing the Roles of Regulators, Enterprises and ‘Third Parties’ in Protection of the Hudson Valley by IPPEP Model. Professor Robinson was honored with the Academy’s first Senior Environmental Law Education Award for his years of teaching and mentoring environmental law students. Some of our summer students visiting United Nations headquarters 12 Center for Environmental Legal Studies
Visit from Ivonne A-Baki, Minister of State for the Yasuni-ITT Project
The UN Environmental Diplomacy Practicum places JD and LLM students in internships with permanent missions to the United Nations. Students advise small island states, such as Mozambique, Trinidad
Brazil Comparative Environmental Law Course touring energy company facilities in Rio
Brazil Comparative Environmental Law Course This spring, Professor David Cassuto, BAILE co-director and founder, and Professor Rômulo Sampaio (SJD ’06) accompanied students on the field component of the Brazil Comparative Environmental Law course over spring break. The class visited Rio de Janeiro, where they toured the Tijuca Forest and other sites to learn about the environmental and sustainability challenges faced by that famous city. They also learned about the energy industry in Brazil while visiting the facilities of Brazil’s state-owned energy giant, Petrobras, in Rio and speaking to scientists and other employees of the corporation. The class ended its field trip with a few days on scenic Ilha Grande, a picturesque island near Rio containing some of the last Atlantic rainforests in Brazil and the threatened and endangered species that inhabit it.
Global Environmental Law Program
In January, students in the UN Environmental Diplomacy Practicum and several faculty members were privileged to meet with Minister Ivonne A-Baki, former Ambassador for Ecuador to the United States. Minister A-Baki spoke to the group about her efforts to preserve the Yasuni National Forest through the Yasuni-ITT initiative in which Ecuador asked nations, corporations, and individuals from around the world to help save an important Amazonian biodiversity hotspot sitting atop millions of barrels of oil.
Dean Emeritus Richard Ottinger presenting an award to Minister Ivonne A-Baki
and Tobago, Marshall Island, and Dominica, on legal issues relating to climate change and sustainability and learn to navigate the unique world of the United Nations.
The Brazil-American Institute for Law and Environment
Seminário Negociaçião de Conflitos Ambientais (Environmental Conflict Resolution Seminar) Professor Lin Harmon and EPA Mediator David Batson taught a one-week seminar at the Universidad Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) School of Law in June. The part-theory, part-practice course developed the capacity of Brazilian judges, environmental agency officials, and public prosecutors to resolve difficult environmental conflicts. Pace’s Brazil-American Institute for Law and Environment (BAILE) and Kheel Center for the Resolution of Environmental Interest Disputes co-sponsored the course.
Ilha Grande, where the Brazil Comparative Environmental Law course ended its spring field trip
Pace Law School 13
Faculty News
faculty news The Pace Law environmental faculty were in high demand this year. They have published over 30 scholarly articles and books and made over 40 presentations in more than 10 countries, all while managing to teach more than 20 courses. Professor Elizabeth Burleson Selected publications:
• E nvironmental Law and Indian Country (with William Rodgers ed. West Law 2013) • “ Polar Lessons from Antarctica Climate Cooperation,” in Ocean and Coastal Law in the Climate Change Context: Domestic and International Regulatory Challenges (Abate et al ed., forthcoming 2013) • “ Climate Coordination Among States and Civil Society,” in Oxford Handbook of International Climate Change Law (Carlarne et al ed., forthcoming 2013) • E merging Human Rights and Environmental Law in the Context of Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas, -Case W. Res. L. Rev. -- (forthcoming 2013) • D ynamic Governance Innovation, 24 Geo. Int’l Envtl. L. Rev. 477 (2013) • C limate Sustainability through Ethics, Economic, and Environmental Coordination, 43 ELR 4 (2013) (coauthor) • F ield Notes from the Super-Storm Sandy Catastrophe, Colum. J. Envtl. L. Field Rep. ( Jan. 8, 2013) • C ollective Climate Solution Generation and Implementation, 30 Yale J. Reg. Online 17 (2012) Selected Accomplishments:
• I UCN Legal Expert Delegate to the climate negotiations and Legal Response Initiative pro bono counsel to least developed countries (and the French Government) • N WF President’s Advisory Council • R eviewer for Cambridge University Press, NSF, Routledge, UNEP, Energy Biosciences Institute, ELR, Law & Policy, ABA, Aspen, and McGill • C o-coordinated/moderated the AALS Environmental Field trip/sub-conference • E xpert contributor to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) • N ational Science Foundation grant reviewer for Arctic Sustainability Cooperation Among Indigenous Peoples and the Hydrocarbon Industry Selected Presentations:
• U Conn, Rutgers-Newark, George Mason, Villanova, Idaho, Lewis and Clark, AALS, Yale, Case Western, International Law Association (ILA), and the University of Oregon • D oha Climate Negotiations on behalf of United Nations Office of Legal Affairs & UNITAR at the UN Headquarters
14 Center for Environmental Legal Studies
Distinguished Scholar-inResidence Leslie Carothers Selected publication:
• E nvironmental Law Confronts the New Industrial Revolution, 30 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 391 (2013) Selected Accomplishment:
• A BA Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy (individual)(2013) Selected Presentation:
• “ Using Law to Advance Environmental Protection” at a Four College Leadership Workshop for students from Smith, Amherst, University of Massachusetts, and Hampshire College
Professor David N. Cassuto Selected Publications:
• T he Evolution of the Brazilian Regulation of Ethanol and Possible Lessons for the United States, 30 Wis. Int’l L.J. -- (2013) (with Carolina Gueiros) • Hard, Soft & Uncertain: The Guarani Aquifer and the Challenges of Transboundary Groundwater, 24 Colo. Nat. Resources, Energy, & Envtl. L.J. 1 (2013) (with Rômulo S.R. Sampaio) • The Importance of Information and Participation Principles in Environmental Law in Brazil, the United States and Beyond, Rev. European, Comparative & International Envtl. L. Vol. 22, No. 1 (2013) (with Rômulo S. R. Sampaio) • Meat Animals, Humane Standards & Other Legal Fictions, Law, Culture & Humanities (Fall 2012) • Blogs regularly for Animal Blawg and GreenLaw, and EarthDesk including several articles regarding “Ag Gag” laws Selected Accomplishments:
• E lected the Town Justice of Austerlitz, NY • Guest post in New York Times’ Dot Earth blog on non-human personhood and animal welfare Selected Presentations:
• “ Animals’ Sensitivity and the Law in South America: An Evolving Legal Landscape” at an international symposium in Paris entitled Animal Suffering: From Science to Law • “Environmental Ethics and the Factory Farm” at the 19th Annual Ethics Symposium of the South Texas Law Review
-- (forthcoming 2014) • N o Entry to the Public Lands: Towards a Theory of a Public Trust Servitude for a Way Over Abutting Private Land, -- Wyo. L. Rev. -- (forthcoming 2013)
Professor and Environmental Litigation Co-Director Karl Coplan
Selected Accomplishments:
Selected Publications:
• C limate Change, Political Truth, and the Marketplace of Ideas, Utah L. Rev. Vol. 2012, No. 2 at 545 • Frequent contributor to Pace’s GreenLaw blog, authoring “Our Infallible Supreme Court Punts on the Clean Water Act Again,” “What this Week’s SCOTUS Arguments on Same Sex Marriage Have to Do with Climate Change Law,” and “The Simple (And Frightening) Climate Math That Not Even Bill McKibben Seems Willing To Do”
Selected Accomplishment
• K entuckians for the Commonwealth Friends of Evelyn Williams Award Selected Presentation
• “ The Climate Activism Model: Civil Rights, Prohibition, or Abolition?” in Western New England University’s Clason Speaker Series Quotable Quotes
• E PA Water Transfer Rule Too Lax on Permits, Enviros Say, Law360, Mar. 25, 2013
Environmental Litigation Clinic Supervising Attorney and Adjunct Professor Daniel Estrin Selected Accomplishments:
• S upervised Pace Law students on over twenty active legal matters • Kentuckians for the Commonwealth Friends of Evelyn Williams Award Quotable Quotes
• O &R Defends Policy on Gas Leaks: Residents Concerned That Minor Instances are Not Fixed Quickly, Journal News, July 7, 2013 • Challenge Could Curdle Milk Supply, Times Union, July 30, 2013
Professor Shelby D. Green Selected Publications:
• E fficiency, Free Will and Reason: The Reinvention of Caveat Emptor Through Disclaimer of Reliance Clauses, -- Kansas J. L. & Pub. Pol’y
Selected Presentations:
• A BA, Real Property Trusts and Estates Section, Spring Symposia • ABA, Real Property Trusts and Estates Section, Professor’s Corner • Webinar on Development Agreements • E ditor, Keeping Current - Property, Probate & Property • Serves on the board of the Jay Heritage Center in Rye, New York • Serves on the selection committee for the Pace Community Law Practice Fellows
Faculty News
• L ectures on animal and constitutional law, Public Prosecutor’s Office, City of Florianopolis, Brazil • Ag-Gag law speaker at the All-Ivy Vegan Conference at Yale University • “Understanding and Planning Future Water Needs” panel moderator at Yale’s Fourth Annual Yale Climate and Energy Institute Conference • “Constitutional Law & the Environment,” II Annual Congress on Comparative Environmental Law, Salvador, Brazil
Professor, Assistant Dean and Director, Environmental Law Programs Lin Harmon Selected Publications:
• D ictionary of Environmental and Climate Change Law (Edward Elgar 2013) (co-edited)
Selected Accomplishments:
• C hairs ABA SEER’s Endangered Species Committee • Co-taught Pace’s spring 2013 United Nations Environmental Diplomacy Practicum • Taught a week-long course in environmental dispute resolution for Brazilian judges and agency officials at the Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro in June
Selected Presentations:
• F acilitated a discussion on environmental adjudication at an official side event of the World Bank’s Conference in December • “The Future of Environmental Law and Lawyering” and “Environment 2050” (with Environmental Law Institute President John Cruden) panelist at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference • Presented testimony at the United Nations General Assembly’s International Mother Earth Day conference on Ecuador’s proposed Universal Declaration on the Rights of Nature
Quotable Quotes:
• N YC Lawmakers Wary of Bloomberg’s Styrofoam Ban, Law 360, June 12, 2012 • Smaller Sandy Buyout Sparks Fears Over Future Storm Costs, LAW 360, May 14, 2013 • Plastic Bags: More Municipalities Consider Bans, Journal News, March 2, 2013
Professor and Environmental Litigation Clinic Co-Director Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Selected Publications:
• How Big Oil Uses the Republican Party continued on next page Pace Law School 15
Faculty News
faculty news continued to Subvert American Democracy, Huffington Post Greenblog, May 10, 2013 • W e Need a Mercury Treaty with Teeth, Guardian/ Huffington Post, January 11, 2013 Selected Accomplishments:
• A rrested in a protest of the Keystone XL Pipeline outside of the White House • S uccessfully delayed a plan to allow fracking after a series of phone calls with Governor Cuomo. Sources: Cuomo Came Close on Fracking Plan: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Tells AP That Governor Changed Course to Await Health Study Results, Times Union, March 2, 2013 • C hair of the Board of Waterkeeper Alliance • C hief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper Fund • S enior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, directing NRDC’s Estuary Enforcement Project
Selected Presentations:
• P lenary speaker at the 23rd annual SRI Conference on Sustainable, Responsible, Impact Investing in October
Professor and Pace Energy and Climate Center Executive Director Franz Litz Selected Publications:
• C an the U.S. Get There From Here? Using Existing Federal Laws and State Action to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (February 2013, World Resources Institute) (co-authored)
Selected Accomplishments:
• P ace Energy and Climate Center representative at COP18 in Doha, briefing delegations on latest WRIPace analysis on reductions possible in the United States without new legislation • N RDC panelist at the National Press Club in D.C. on NRDC’s Clean Air Act proposal to reduce emissions from existing power plants • G uest lecturer for the International Carbon Action Partnership’s (ICAP’s) Training Course on Emissions Trading in Rotterdam, Netherlands • C onvenes a group of officials from 20 states preparing for forthcoming EPA carbon pollution standards from power plants • F acilitates and advises a group of utilities, electric generating companies, environmental groups, and state officials in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Region engaging EPA and other states on forthcoming EPA regulations to reduce carbon pollution from power plants
Quotable Quotes:
• R omney Shifted Right on Energy as Presidential Politics Beckoned, N.Y. Times, Sept. 29, 2012 • O bama Should Cut Emissions without Congress, Group Says, U.S. News, Dec. 4, 2012 • E PA Rules May Create New Opportunities for US Carbon Traders, Energy Risk, Aug. 15, 2013 16 Center for Environmental Legal Studies
Professor Jeffrey G. Miller Selected Publications:
• C lean Water Act Jurisdiction: An Interpretive Quartet (forthcoming) • Introduction to Environmental law: Cases & Materials on Water Pollution Control (co-authored with Ann Powers and Nancy Long Elder, forthcoming) • 25th Annual National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition Problem
Professor John R. Nolon Selected Publications:
• L and Use and Climate Change: Lawyers Negotiating Above Regulation, -Brook. L. Rev. -- (forthcoming 2013) • Land Use for Energy Conservation and Sustainable Development: A New Path Towards Climate Change Mitigation, 27 J. Land Use & Envtl L. 295 (2012), in Zoning and Planning Law Handbook (Thomson Reuters 2012-2013) • Managing Climate Change Through Biological Sequestration: Open Space Law Redux, 31 Stan. Envtl. L. Rev. 195 (2012), in Zoning and Planning Law Handbook (Thomson Reuters 2012-2013) • Regulatory Takings and Property Rights Confront Sea Level Rise: How Do They Roll?, 21 Widener L. Rev. 735 (2012) • Land Use for Energy Conservation and Sustainable Development: A New Path Toward Climate Change Mitigation, 27 J. Land Use & Envtl. L. 295 (2012) • Hydrofracking--Disturbances Both Geological and Political: Who Decides?, 44 Urb. Law 507 (2012) • Greenlaw blogs building upon his essay in the 20th anniversary issue of the Fordham Environmental Law Review exploring ten fundamental paradigm shifts in land use and environmental law that have occurred during the past twenty years: *F rom Top-down Environmental Law to Bottom-up Land Use Strategies * From One to Many American Dreams *F rom Rushing to the Shore to Retreating from the Sea * From Regulation to Contingency Bargaining * From Coal and Oil to Gas *F rom a Fragmented to Integrated Federal System: Two Steps Forward
Selected Accomplishments:
• C reated a suite of five land use and environmental law courses that have become a core curricular offering for Masters degrees in Environmental Management candidates at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Land Use Law Center staff attorneys assist him in teaching, lecturing, and supervising students involved in these courses at F&ES. • Submitted an amicus brief with nine other law professors in Norse Energy v. Town of Dryden, a New York State hydrofracking case
Selected Presentations:
Quotable Quotes:
• A bove the Bar, Westchester Bus. J., Nov. 16, 2012 • State Takes on Lewisboro in Horse Zoning Issue, Democrat & Chronicle, Feb. 18, 2013
Dean Emeritus Richard Ottinger Selected Publications:
• R enewable Energy Law and Development: Case Study Analyses (Edward Elgar 2013) • Environmental Governance: Assessing the Roles of Regulators, Enterprises and ‘Third Parties’ in Protection of the Hudson Valley By An IPPEP Model (with Professor Wang Xi of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Professor Nick Robinson, et al.) (forthcoming in the Pace Environmental Law Review 2013)
Selected Accomplishments:
• H onored by Pace Law School, which renamed its main classroom building “Richard Ottinger Hall” • Chair of the Energy Law and Climate Change Specialty Group of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law • Chair of the Board of the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation • Board of Directors of the National Council for Science and the Environment • Chair Emeritus of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute • Board of the National Council on Science and the Environment
Selected Presentation:
• E nvironmental Governance: Assessing the Roles of Regulators, Enterprises and ‘Third Parties’ in Protection of the Hudson Valley by an IPPEP Model (with Professor Wang Xi) at the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Colloquium in Hamilton, New Zealand
Professor Ann Powers Selected Publications:
• S ea Level Rise and Its Impact on Vulnerable States: Four Examples, 73 La. L. Rev. 151 (2012) (in connection with her presentation, “From New
Orleans to Nauru: Coasts and the Climate Debate,” at the Louisiana Law Review’s 2012 Symposium, Coastal Land Loss in the Gulf Coast and Beyond) • The Rio+20 Process: Forward Movement for the Environment?, J. Transnat’l Envtl. J., 403 (2012) • Introducing the Law of the Sea and the Legal Implications of Rising Sea Levels, in Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a Changing Climate (Michael Gerrard ed., Cambridge University Press 2013) (co-authored) • Implications of Rio+20 for the Institutional Frameworks of Oceans, Global Ocean Forum News, April 2013 Selected Accomplishments:
• A ppointed to the ABA Task Force on Sustainable Development to help review and make recommendations regarding the involvement of the ABA in implementing sustainable development matters worldwide • International Council of Environmental Law’s (ICEL’s) Representative to UN
Faculty News
• S poke at Case Western Reserve Law School on the tension between state and local regulation of hydrofracking; a paper on the same topic is forthcoming in the Case Western Reserve Law Review • M oderated a session on “Large-Scale Redevelopment Projects” at the Environmental Law Section annual meeting during the New York State Bar Association’s yearly conference • P resented on “Certifying Sustainable Communities” at the Fordham Law School Symposium for the 40th Anniversary of the Urban Law Journal • P resented on the regulation of hydrofracking at the Yale Climate and Energy Institute Symposium on Unconventional Energy Resources at Yale’s Greenburgh Conference Center
Selected Presentations:
• L essons from Across the Waters, Stanford Law School Symposium on Emerging Perspectives on the Law, Science, and Policy of Dynamic Marine Conservation 2013 • Regional Ocean Planning in the Mid-Atlantic, moderator and concluding panel commentator, Seton Hall Law School Regional Ocean Governance Symposium 2012 • The Clean Water Act @ 40 interactive roundtable participant, Harvard Law School & Natural Resources Defense Council • Panelist at Yale Law School’s New Directions in Environmental Law conference where her panel, “What If Plans Were Law,” focused on the intersection and potential conflicts between land use planning and environmental regulation
University Professor for the Environment Nicholas A. Robinson Selected Publications:
• D ictionary of Environmental and Climate Change Law (Edward Elgar 2013) (co-edited) • Environmental Law in ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) (NYU and National University Singapore 2013) (co-authored with Professors K.L. Koh and Lye Lin Heng)
Selected Accomplishments:
• A warded the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law’s first “Senior Environmental Law Education Award” for his years of teaching and mentoring environmental law students
Selected Presentations:
• E nvironmental Management: Challenges of the Next Decade and Climate Change and International Order: What Come After Agenda 21?, National University of Singapore • Leonard v.B. Sutton Colloquium in International Law speaker, University of Denver continued on next page Pace Law School 17
Faculty News Ann Powers (second from right) and Nicholas Robinson (far right) at the Stanford Law Marine Conservation Symposium in May
• W orkshop on REDD+ and Legal Regimes of Mangroves, Peatlands and Other Wetlands speaker, National University of Singapore • I nternational Seminar of Rights of Nature: Application and Trends presenter by invitation of Ecuador’s Minister of Foreign Affairs • “ The Role of Environmental Courts and Tribunals and Specialized Chambers in Courts for Environmental Matters” presenter, New Delhi Dialogue on Role of Courts & Tribunals in the Changing Global Order (via Skype) • “ Developments in International Environmental Compliance & Enforcement” panelist (with Environmental Law Institute President John Cruden), New York City Bar Association • A ddressed a nationally-televised colloquium held in the Senate Chamber of Brazil along with the Minister of the Environment, the Director General of International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the newly confirmed Brazilian Ambassador to the UN; interviewed separately for a national broadcast in Brazil on environmental law • S ymposium on Emerging Perspectives on the Law, Science, and Policy of Dynamic Marine Conservation panelist, Stanford Law School • “ Legal Principles to Sustain Happiness and Ecological Well-Being,” Cebu City, Philippines • N ESS (Nordic Environmental Social Science) Conference keynote speaker, Copenhagen, Denmark • “ Evolving Environmental Law into the Anthropocene Epoch” speaker, IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Colloquium, Hamilton, New Zealand
18 Center for Environmental Legal Studies
Pace Scholar in Residence Leslie Stein Selected Publications:
• C omparative and International Urban Land Law and Policy, in The Edited Collection of Essays in Honour of Professor Patrick McAuslan’s Work and Contribution (Routeledge, forthcoming) • Forms of Climate Change Adaptation, in Land Solutions to Climate Displacement (Routeledge, S. Leckie ed., forthcoming) • Domestic Law for Persons Displaced by Climate Change, in Threatened Island Nations: Legal Implications of Rising Seas and a Changing Climate (Cambridge Univ. Press, Michael B. Gerrard & Gregory E. Wanner eds., 2013) • Global Warming: Inaction, Denial and Psyche, 88 Spring J. 88 (2013)
Selected Accomplishments:
• C onsultant to the Government of New South Wales for its Report on Land Use Planning Law
For more of our faculty scholarship, please visit our faculty page at law.pace.edu/environment.
At the Garrison Lecture in March, the Pace Environmental Alumni Council was proud to award Professor James May (LLM ’91), William Cahill (JD ’95), and Basil Seggos (JD ’01), who was recently appointed Governor Andrew Cuomo’s assistant secretary for the environment, the Nicholas A.
Marcia Fargnoli Stanton (JD ’05), Director of the Earth Organization Namibia, received two special awards from the NACOMA Project of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism for her valuable assistance with environmental law enforcement and dedication to coastal conservation in Namibia. Michael Vatter (JD ’03) was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Newburgh Community Land Bank, Inc., one of the first five land banks in New York State. Marcia Stanton (LLM ’11) is working as a consultant for Planete Verde in the State of Acre’s Payments for Ecosystem Services Project (“SISA”) in Brazil. This state-wide program on payments for ecosystem services is playing an important role in Acre´s environmental policies and sustainable development.
Environmental Alumni News
Environmental Alumni News
Jennie McAleese (JD ’11) began working as a Senior Attorney with the Adirondack Park Agency. Professor James May
Robinson Award for Alumni Achievement for their significant contributions to the field of environmental law. Professor Tumai Murombo (LLM ’06) has been appointed the Director of the Mandela Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. The Institute researches and teaches in areas such as law and sustainability, international dispute resolution, global business regulation, corporate governance, international trade and investment law. Karen Mignone (JD ’89) was selected for inclusion in “The Best Lawyers in America 2013” for Environmental Law. Karen is a partner at Verrill Dana, LLP. She is a member of the firm’s Energy, Environment and Water & Wastewater Utilities practice groups. Peter Putignano (JD ’05) began working at IBM as a Senior Attorney for Corporate Environmental Affairs. Professor Marco Olsen (SJD ’02) has been appointed an International Visiting Scholar at UC Hastings School of Law for the 2013-14 year. Amanda Waters (JD ’00) was appointed to the position of Government Affairs Counsel at the Water Environment Federation where she will advocate for the organization and help to develop key water laws and regulations.
Joelle Harris (LLM ’12), has been named Solicitor General to the government of Dominica. Joelle trained in international environmental diplomacy through Pace’s UN Environmental Diplomacy Practicum. Heather Leibowitz (JD ’13) has been named the director of Environment New York.
The title screen from alumna Elaine Hsiao’s recent documentary
On Earth Day, the Pace Center for Environmental Legal Studies was proud to screen Elaine Hsiao’s (JD ’09, LLM ’10) documentary Transcending Boundaries: Perspectives from the Central Albertine Rift Transfrontier Protected Area Network. The film focuses on the border region between Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Northern Rwanda, and Western Uganda and the transboundary conservation efforts there. It is based upon Elaine’s research as a Fulbright Fellow in the area.
Pace Law School 19
National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition
Pace Hosts
National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition Pace hosted its 25th annual National Environmental Moot Court Competition in February, drawing hundreds of law student competitors from around the nation. The country’s premier environmental law moot court competition provides an intense experience for student competitors. Top briefs submitted to the competition in the past have been used as a resource for practicing attorneys. This year 72 teams from 34 states and Washington, DC descended on the Pace Law School campus from February 21-23 to The Vermont Law School NELMCC team poses with the original Storm King compete. Due to high demand to enter Mountain painting by John Hulsey the competition, administrators had to waitlist a number of teams. Competitors rounds. The Honorable Malachy Mannion of the grappled with a problem involving standing, subject United States District Court for the Middle District matter jurisdiction (continuing violation and diligent of Pennsylvania (and a Pace Law alumnus), the prosecution), and the element of addition under the Honorable Edgardo Ramos of the United States Clean Water Act. The problem involved a complex District Court for the Southern District of New York, situation involving the clearing of a wetland adjacent the Honorable Catherine McCabe of the United to a transboundary water body. States EPA Environmental Appeals Board, and the Honorable Joseph Bellacosa, formerly of the New Pace Law students are responsible for organizing and York State Court of Appeals, judged the final round. fundraising for this annual event. Senior Program Coordinator Leslie Crincoli manages the behind-thescenes logistics. This year over 150 attorneys from around the New York and DC metropolitan areas, many of whom are Pace alumni, were recruited to judge the preliminary, quarterfinal, and semifinal
This year the top three teams that survived until the final round were Lewis and Clark Law School, Appalachian Law School, and Vermont Law School. The Vermont team (pictured here) emerged as the ultimate winner.
NELMCC Board students work all year and give up their spring break to ensure a successful competition. 20 Center for Environmental Legal Studies
The Pace Environmental Law Review is dedicated to high quality, cutting-edge legal scholarship for the benefit of the bench, bar, and academia. Volume 30, Issue 1 (2012) Home is Where the Health Is: The Convergence of Environmental Justice, Affordable Housing, and Green Building Kevin C. Foy Using Building Codes to Rewrite the Tailoring Rule and Mitigate Climate Change Albert Monroe The ‘Volatile’ World of Vapor Intrusion: Understanding Vapor Intrusion Regulation and the Potential for Litigation Christine G. Rolph, Valerie E. Torres, and John W. Everett The Right to Know and the Duty to Disclose: Pathways to Effective Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification within the Constitutionalism of Climate Justice Teresa Thorp The Changing Perspectives of U.S and Japanese Nuclear Energy Policies in the Aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi Disaster Daniel A. Dorfman Response to The Changing Perspectives of U.S. and Japanese Nuclear Energy Policies in the Aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi Disaster Michael J. Walker and Elise M. Henry Federal Numeric Nutrient Criteria in Florida: When Cooperative Federalism Goes Rogue Adam Weiss Transnational Carbon-Trading Standards: Improving the Transparency and Coordination of Post-Kyoto Carbon Trading Markets Braden Smith Climate and Energy Policy in the Obama Administration Jody Freeman
Vol. 30, Issue 2 (2013) Nanotechnology and the Environment Environmental Law Confronts the New Industrial Revolution Leslie Carothers Searching for the Nano-needle in a Green Haystack: Researching the Environmental, Health, and Safety Ramifications of Nanotechnology Taryn L. Rucinski The Case for an Information-Forcing Regulatory Definition of “Nanomaterials” David A. Dana Regulatory Concerns and Health/Hazard Risks Associated with Nanotechnology Louis Theodore and Leo Stander No Laws in Nanoland: How to Reverse the Trend? The French Example Nadia Kaddour Big Things in Small Packages: Evaluating the City of Berkeley’s Nanotechnology Ordinance Effectiveness as a Model of Targeted Transparency Drew Lerer Harmony with Nature and Genetically Modified Seeds: A Contradictory Concept in the United States and Brazil? Heather Leibowitz Carbon Tax with Reinvestment Trumps Cap-and-Trade Stephen Sewalk International Deployment of Microbial Pest Control Agents: Falling Between the Cracks of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol? Guy R. Knudsen The Legal Profession’s Critical Role in Systems-Level Bioenergy Decision-Making Jody M. Endres The Principle of Resilience Lia Helena Monteiro de Lima Demange
Volume 30, Issue 3 (2013) Problems for Pale Male: An Analysis of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Nest Destruction Policy Brent Plater, Nicole Lopez-Hagan, and Laura Horton Cyanide, Mining, and the Environment Jan G. Laitos Only One Mekong: Developing Transboundary EIA Procedures of Mekong River Basin Jian Ke and Qi Gao The Liberal Limits of Environmental Law: A Green Legal Critique Michael M’Gonigle and Louise Takeda
Pace Environmental Law Review
Pace Environmental Law Review
A Mindful Environmental Jurisprudence?: Speculations on the Application of Gandhi’s Thought to MCWC v. Nestlé Nehal A. Patel and Lauren Vella The Chinese Legal Tradition as a Cultural Constraint on the Westernization of Chinese Environmental Law and Policy: Toward a Chinese Environmental Law and Policy Regime with More Chinese Characteristics Paul A. Barresi Denial of Access to the Lloyd Aquifer: The Impossibility of Overcoming the Lloyd Moratorium Krista M. Tenney New York’s Proposed Solar Renewable Energy Market: Lessons Learned From Other States’ SREC Markets and Recommendations in Moving Forward Jesse Glickstein Response to New York’s Proposed Solar Renewable Energy Market: Lessons Learned from Other States’ SREC Markets and Recommendations in Moving Forward Joe Naroditsky Nonhuman Rights to Personhood Steven M. Wise
Pace Law School 21
Pace Law School 78 North Broadway White Plains, NY 10603 www.law.pace.edu/environment
Pace is committed to a sustainable campus. See our sustainability policy at www.law.pace.edu/sustainability
This paper is manufactured using carbon neutral and Green-e certified offsets. Printed with soy based inks.
A Powerful Environmental Legal Education Pace Law School provides a world-class education in an ideal setting, 35 minutes by train from the heart of New York City and the United Nations headquarters, and an easy commute by train or plane to the nation’s capital. Nationally and internationally prominent law faculty and a diverse community of bright, engaged law students enjoy a beautiful tree-lined campus in the walkable city of White Plains, New York. Degree programs JD with Certificate in Environmental Law LLM in Environmental Law LLM in Environmental Law, Climate Change Track LLM in Environmental Law, Land Use and Sustainable Development Track SJD in Environmental Law Joint degree programs JD/Master of Environmental Management with Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Law Review Pace Environmental Law Review Practicum Opportunities UN Environmental Diplomacy Practicum DC Environmental Externship Environmental Externships (worldwide) Environmental Internships (NYC area) Clinic Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic
JD/Master of Science in Environmental Policy with Bard Student Groups College Center for Environmental Policy Environmental Law Society, Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Society, National Environmental JD/LLM in Environmental Law (with specialized Moot Court Competition, Pace Energy and Climate Law tracks in Climate Change and in Land Use and Society, Student Animal Legal Defense Fund Sustainable Development)