Elisabeth Haub School of Law Award Medal with a wooden backdrop

Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies

Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy

Honoring World Leaders in Environmental Law and Diplomacy

The Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy is the world’s most prestigious award in the field of environmental law recognizing the innovation, skill, and accomplishments of lawyers, diplomats, international civil servants and other advocates who work to create the world environmental order. The Award has a distinguished history since 1979 shaped by progress in the field of environmental law and policy, and through collaborations with the Universite libre du Bruxelles and the International Council of Environmental Law. Chosen annually by an esteemed jury, the Award honors the late Elisabeth Haub, a noted philanthropist and environmental advocate.

About the Award

Previous Laureates

2026 Haub Award

The 2026 Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy will be jointly awarded to environmental lawyers Alfred Lahai Gbabai Brownell Sr. and Durwood Zaelke for their groundbreaking contributions to the progressive development of environmental law and their decades of leadership advancing environmental justice, climate action, and environmental governance around the world. The award will be presented during a ceremony at Pace University in New York City on Wednesday, October 21, 2026.

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2026 Haub Award winners Alfred Brownell and Durwood Zaelke

2025 Ceremony Video

Watch the 2025 Haub Award ceremony and panel discussion on how scholarship, advocacy, and diplomacy converged at the UN to secure universal recognition of the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment—moderated by Prof. Smita Narula, with the laureates and Ambassador Maritza Chan Valverde.

2025 Haub Award Panelists, Professor Smita Narula, John Knox, David Boyd and Ambassador Maritza Chan Valverde

About Elisabeth Haub (1899–1977)

Elisabeth Haub was a tireless environmental advocate and philanthropist with an extraordinary legacy supporting the progress of environmental law, with particular emphasis on activities that impact policy, promote a balanced approach to sustainable growth and reflect the global nature of environmental issues. She devoted much of her life to the stewardship of sustainability, forming the first foundation dedicated to establishing laws for nature conservation and environmental protection. The Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy, as it is known today, was named in her honor.