Research and Applied Policy Programs

An important focus of student-faculty collaboration at NYU is provided by the Law School 's research and policy programs in environmental regulation, international environmental law and sustainable development, and land use, housing and urban policy. These programs are organized by the Center on Environmental and Land Use Law, directed by Professor Stewart, and, the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, directed by Professor Been.

Program on Common Property Resources

Project on Market Mechanisms in Environmental Regulation

The Program on Common Property Resources, headed by Professor Wyman, focuses on the political, economic, institutional, and other factors that determine the choice of innovative environmental regulatory instruments, such as tradable pollution or resource use permits. Wyman's research has centered on air pollution and fisheries management. A native of Canada , she brings a comparative perspective to her work and is particularly interested in the implications of different institutional structures and cultural and historical traditions for the choice of regulatory instrument. Wyman recently convened a roundtable that brought together parties that have been actively involved in implementing property rights and market approaches for regulating common resources such as air, water, and fisheries.

Program on Environmental Regulation

Project on the Valuation of Environmental Benefits

Dean Revesz, who heads the Program on Environmental Regulation, has been working on a series of projects to develop and encourage a more progressive approach to the use of cost-benefit analysis in the environmental regulatory process. The projects address such issues as the practice of discounting the value assigned to saving human lives in the context of latent harms (where injury occurs in the future as a result of current pollution exposures) and of harms to future generations, and the failure to take account of ancillary environmental benefits from regulatory requirements. Revesz is currently researching whether current practices for valuing the environmental benefits of regulation have an anti-regulatory bias. He has coauthored several of the articles with students and post-graduate fellows in this research program,

Program on Land Use Law

Project on Pricing Development

Professor Been and Ansley Samson, a former research fellow with the Center, are engaged in a series of projects to address the failure of the nation's land use regulatory system to require land development projects to internalize all of the social and environmental costs imposed by development. With the help of NYU students, she is studying the effect user fees, development impact fees, and local tax policies have upon the availability of affordable housing, and is working to help land use and environmental policy-makers deploy such fees more effectively while at the same time minimizing their conflict with affordable housing programs. She also is working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct a nationwide survey of local governments to learn more about how policy-makers use impact

Program on International Environmental Law and Sustainable Development

Global Administrative Law Project

The Project on the Administrative Law Frontier in Global Governance focuses on global administrative law—a significant emerging field of law and practice that synthesizes traditional international and administrative law disciplines. New systems of administrative procedures, review mechanisms, and decisional principles have arisen to promote greater accountability in decision-making by the rapidly proliferating variety of global regulatory administrative bodies. These developments encompass formal international organizations (such as the WTO, the Security Council, World Bank, the Climate Change regime, etc), informal intergovernmental networks of domestic regulatory officials (such as the Basel Committee of national bank regulators), domestic authorities implementing global regulatory law, and hybrid public-private and purely private international regulatory regimes. The project examines the new structures of administrative law that have arisen in these different institutional contexts, and their normative dimensions, including regime integrity, protection of subjects' rights and promotion of democratic values. It also seeks to identify and promote practical law reform steps to improve global environmental governance. The project is being carried out with the Institute for International Law and Justice and is directed by Professors Benedict Kingsbury and Richard B. Stewart at New York University School of Law. The project is engaged in the systematic study of this new field of law through research, conferences, and publications and seeks to promote global collaboration and dialogue in this enterprise, engaging academics, national and international officials, and practitioners. NYU students are

Project on International Regulatory Conflicts Over Genetically Modified Crops and Foods.

Global conflicts in trade and regulation of bioengineered foods and crops containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are being addressed through a multi-year research project by the Center's Program on International Environmental Law under the leadership of Professor Stewart. The Project, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, involves NYU students as well as researchers from 11 countries around the world. The Project is issuing an extensive report analyzing the roots of the conflict and ways of managing international GMO regulatory conflicts to minimize damage to the international trade governance system and ensure that countries, especially developing countries, have the legal and other capacities to make informed judgments about the appropriate role of GMO agricultural technologies. [Read more about the project]

Program on International Environmental Legal Assistance

Project on Public Access to Environmental Information

The International Environmental Legal Assistance Program, directed by Jane Stewart ('79), enlists NYU School of Law faculty and students, as well as outside experts, to provide developing countries and countries with transition economies with practical assistance in strengthening and enforcing their environmental and land use laws and policies. The Program has conducted major projects in China , where it assisted the Environmental Protection Committee of China's National People's Congress in drafting stronger environmental laws, and in Eastern Europe . Law School students have been significantly involved in research, law drafting, policy development, and other activities of the projects. The Program is currently conducting a new project, funded by the Global Environmental Facility and administered under the Danube River Commission, to assist Bosnia , Bulgaria , Croatia , Romania , and Serbia in promoting public access to environmental information by developing appropriate laws, administrative practices, and outreach to environmental and citizens' groups. [Read more about the project]

Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy

NYU School of Law is unique among U.S. law schools in that it co-hosts, along with NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School for Public Service, and houses one of the nation's preeminent research centers on public policy related to housing and real estate development. The Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy is dedicated to furthering informed dialogue regarding sound law and policy in the areas of land use, real estate, housing and urban policy.

The Impact of Public and Private Investments in Neighborhoods

The Furman Center's research has centered on questions about the impact that various forms of land use regulation, real estate development and other public and private place-based investments have upon the affordability and character of surrounding neighborhoods. The Center's research fellows and its affiliated faculty recently published the results of a series of studies about how the housing built under New York City 's Ten Year Capital Plan for Housing, as well as federally subsidized rental housing, has affected the value of surrounding residential properties. The Center also has analyzed how reductions in crime affect property values.

The Center currently is examining the impact that investments in neighborhood parks and community gardens have on property values in the neighborhoods served. It also is examining how investments in housing affect the performance of local schools, and how investments in improving school quality affect neighboring housing values and neighborhood change.

Determinants of Real Estate Values in New York City

The Center also studies the legal, economic and social factors that affect both the value of, and the cost of constructing, single and multiple family housing, cooperative and condominium apartments, and commercial buildings in New York City. The Center has published, for example, an examination of how the difference in legal form between cooperative and condominium apartments affects the value of those apartments. Current projects include research to determine whether the use of business improvement districts affects neighborhood commercial and residential property values.

In 1999, the Center published a major study documenting how the cost of construction in New York City compares to other large American cities, and recommending legal and policy reforms that could reduce the cost of development. The Center published an extensive update to that report in 2005.

The State of New York City's Housing and Neighborhoods

The Center publishes an annual report titled “The State of New York City's Housing and Neighborhoods,” which contains more than 300 pages of the latest data on housing and neighborhood conditions. In September, 2003, a $457,000 matching grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce allowed the Center to launch an interactive, Web-based data system for New York City that makes all of this data and mapping capability available to New York citizens, free of charge. The New York City Housing and Neighborhood Information System (NYCHANIS) has become an important resources for students, the media, policy-makers, the real estate industry and neighborhood groups trying to understand changes in New York City's neighborhoods.

Fostering Debate

The Furman Center 's programs have drawn thousands of people through the doors of Vanderbilt Hall to debate issues of land use and housing policy. Topics of the Center's conferences have included the use of eminent domain in economic redevelopment projects, the costs and benefits of rent regulation, immigration in New York City, research on housing and economic development; policies to promote affordable housing; and the impact of new technologies on community planning. In addition, the Center sponsors a breakfast series that brings leading policy-makers together with academics and representatives of the real estate industry, non-profit housing and land use groups to discuss housing and land use proposals being considered in New York City . A breakfast series in the fall of 2004 focused on inclusionary zoning to provide moderate income housing; another series in the spring of 2005 focused on the problem of predatory lending in low income and minority neighborhoods.

PlanNYC

The Furman Center recently established Plan NYC,  www.plannyc.org, a web-based tool to give citizens and organizations interested in housing and development in New York City easy access to facts, news, and events related to major urban planning projects and development proposals in their neighborhood. PlanNYC is a complete urban planning web portal, with news summaries and links to development-related articles, official documents such as environmental impact statements, and a calendar of upcoming planning events that includes local community board meetings as well as citywide panels and hearings. PlanNYC brings together information from advocacy organizations, government agencies, academic institutions, neighborhood groups, and media organizations - all in one location.