Environmental Law
Our Faculty
From housing and urban policy, to natural resources law, to economic analysis of environmental regulation, and leading environmental policy, NYU has an exceptional core of academic faculty whose work is dedicated to environmental and land use issues. Students may interact with clinical professors in one of the two clinics in the area, learn from leading experts on our adjunct faculty, or take classes with professors who hold permanent positions in other schools at NYU, such as the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service or the Graduate School of Arts and Science.
Acting Faculty Director
Katrina Wyman
Professor of Law
Katrina Wyman's research interests fall into three categories.
First, she is interested in many issues related to property law. For instance, she has completed a number of case studies of the evolution of rights in natural resources such as fisheries and air. She is currently researching how New York City taxi medallions gradually acquired a quasi-property rights status in the twentieth century. Wyman emphasizes that the development of property rights is fundamentally a political process, at least in our times.
Second, Wyman studies natural resources law and policy. One of her main areas of interest is fisheries and oceans policy. In addition to examining the development of property rights in fisheries, she has worked on identifying the current challenges facing marine fisheries policymakers. She currently is working on an article about how the Endangered Species Act should be reformed. This article was undertaken as part of Breaking the Logjam, a project started by NYU Professor Richard Stewart and New York Law School Professor David Schoenbrod to examine how the major federal environmental statutes should be reformed. Read more...
Faculty Director (On Leave during Academic Year 2012-13)
Richard B. StewartUniversity Professor
John Edward Sexton Professor of Law
Chair and Faculty Director, Hauser Global Law School Program
Director, Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law
Recognized as one of the world's leading scholars in environmental and administrative law, Richard Stewart is University Professor and John Edward Sexton Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. Prior to joining the NYU School of Law faculty, Stewart had served as a Byrne Professor of Administrative Law at Harvard Law School and a member of the faculty of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Environment and Natural Resource Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Chairman of the Environmental Defense Fund.
Professor Stewart directs the school's Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental and Land Use Law, which sponsors research, conferences, and publications on cutting-edge issues of environmental and land use law. Students are closely involved in the Center's activities, many of which focus on international and comparative environmental law issues. He is currently leading a major Center project, funded by the Rockefeller foundation to examine international conflicts over regulation of genetically-modified (GMO) crops and foods, examining the conflicting perspectives and interests of the U.S. and other exporters of GMO agricultural products, the EU, and developing countries; evaluating the performance of existing international laws and institutions for resolving these conflicts; and recommending new approaches to international governance to promote the socially beneficial development of agricultural biotechnologies. Read more...