Professor and Director of Center for Urban Environmental Reform–CUNY Law
Aprill 16, 2024
"Mapping Injustice: Race, Place, and Environment in New York City"
Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law
The Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law was established in 1995 in the memory of Lloyd K. Garrison, who, along with his associate, Albert K. Butzel, of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, won the landmark decision to preserve Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River. This victory for the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference did more than safeguard "an area of unique beauty and major historical importance" - it inaugurated what today we recognize as the field of environmental law.
Standing in court to protect nature, citizen suit legislation, the environmental impact statement process, and the balancing of economics with the preservation of scenic beauty and historic resources: these are all rooted in Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission, 354 F.2d 608 (2d Cir. 1965). The Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture celebrates the vision, public spirit and life of this attorney whose legal acumen led citizens in their successful advocacy of environmental quality at Storm King.
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Lloyd K. Garrison was a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law. His calling to the bar led him immediately into public service, helping to start the National Labor Relations Board while serving as Dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School. A great-grandson of William Lloyd Garrison, the abolitionist, he became a member of the National Urban League in 1924, and labored constantly in support of civil rights, defending Arthur Miller, Langston Hughes, and J. Robert Oppenheimer during the era of McCarthyism. Garrison’s service in support of honest and open government marked his role with the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and his participation on numerous federal commissions and agencies from Presidents Herbert Hoover through Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.
Lloyd K. Garrison passed away in 1991. For all his 93 years, Garrison devoted his brilliance and indefatigable energy to building a humane and caring society, respectful of the Rule of Law. Consistent with this dedication, Lloyd K. Garrison took up the citizens’ call to represent the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference in its struggle to protect the Hudson River Gorge at Storm King Mountain. With characteristic enthusiasm he championed public participation rights for the community’s environmental interest, just as he did for civil rights and liberties. The Scenic Hudson victory is a living testament to Garrison's ever hopeful spirit.
Past Garrison Lectures
Senior Counsel, White House Council on Environmental Quality Professor and Director of Faculty Scholarship and Research at Suffolk University School of Law
September 15, 2022
"Advancing Environmental Justice"
Director, Tanner Humanities Center, College Of Humanities, Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law, College Of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney School of Law
November 15, 2021
"Incorporating Human Rights: Corporate Responsibility, Equity, and Just Environments"
Smita Narula
Haub Distinguished Professor of International Law
January 23, 2019
"Food Sovereignty as a Path to Environmental Justice"
Dr. Michael Puma
Director, Center for Climate Systems Research @ NASA GISS
Climate and Life Fellow, Center for Climate and Life
Columbia University in the City of New York
April 25, 2018
"De-risking the global food system in a changing climate
Ann E. Carlson
Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law, UCLA School of Law
Faculty Co-Director, Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
April 19, 2017
"Pollution Hot Spots and the Clean Water Act"
Michael B. Gerrard
Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia Law School
April 6, 2016
"Tragic Legal Choices in Keeping Below Two Degrees"
Robin Kundis Craig
William H. Leary Professor of Law
University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law
April 1, 2015
"Learning to Live with the Trickster: Narrating Climate Change and the Value of Resilience Thinking"
J.B. Ruhl
David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law
Vanderbilt Law School
March 26, 2014
“In Defense of Ecosystem Services"
Lisa Heinzerling
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
March 12, 2013
“Inside EPA"
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March 26, 2012
Jody Freeman
Archibald Cox Professor of Law and Director, Environmental Law Program
Harvard Law School
“Climate and Energy Policy in the Obama Administration"April 6, 2011
Daniel A. Farber
Sho Sato Professor of Law
University of California, Berkeley
“Sustainable Consumption and Communities: Bringing the American Way of Life into the Twenty-First Century”April 15, 2010
Albert K. Butzel
Principal, Albert K. Butzel Law Offices, New York, NY
“Storm King Revisited: A View from the Mountaintop”April 1, 2009
Robert V. Percival
Robert F. Stanton Professor of Law and Director of the Environmental Law Program
University of Maryland School of Law
"The Globalization of Environmental Law"April 17, 2008
Hope Babcock
Professor of Law
Georgetown University
"Global Climate Change: A Civic Republican Moment"2007
John Bonine
Professor of Law
University of Oregon School of Law
“From Silent Spring to Sweltering Summers: The Past and Future of Private Public Interest Law”2006
Karin P. Sheldon
Professor of Law, Associate Dean for the Environmental Law Program
Vermont Law School
“Upstream of Peril: The Role of Federal Lands in Addressing the Extinction Crisis"2005
Cass R. Sunstein
Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence
University of Chicago Law School
“Irreversible and Catastrophic: Global Warming, Terrorism, and Other Problems”2004
Edith Brown Weiss
Francis Cabell Brown Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center
“International Water Disputes”2003
J. William Futrell
President of the Environmental Law Institute (ELI)
“The Transition to Sustainable Development Law”2002
Zygmunt J. B. Plater
Professor of Law
Boston College Law School
“Environmental Law at the Crossroads: The Road Travelled and the Road Ahead”2001
Gerald Torres
H. O. Head Centennial Professor in Real Property Law
University of Texas Law School
"Who Owns the Sky?"2000
A. Dan Tarlock
Distinguished Professor of Law and Co-Director Program in Environmental and Energy Law
Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology
"The Future of Environmental 'Rule of Law' Litigation"1999
Richard J. Lazarus
Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center
"Thirty Years of Environmental Protection Law in the Supreme Court"1998
Oliver A. Houck
Professor of Law and Director of Environmental Law Programs
Tulane University School of Law
"Environmental Law and the General Welfare"1997
William H. Rodgers, Jr.
Professor of Law
University of Washington School of Law
"Defeating Environmental Law: The Geology of Legal Advantage"1996
Joseph L. Sax
Counselor to Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy
US Department of the Interior
"Using Property Rights to Attack Environmental Protection"1995
David Sive, Esq.
Founding Partner, Sive, Paget, & Reisel, PC
Adjunct Professor of Law, Pace Law School
"The Litigation Process in the Development of Environmental Law"
In Memoriam: Two Founders of Environmental Law
David Sive (1922–2014)
Joseph Sax (1936–2014)
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law and environmental law professors across the nation mourned the passing of two giants of environmental law, Joseph Sax and David Sive. Prior to the 2014 Garrison Lecture, our community took time to remember their lives and achievements.