Environmental Law Scholar, Lisa Benjamin, Selected to Receive 2022-2023 Pace | Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award

The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is proud to announce that Professor Lisa Benjamin has been selected to receive the 2022-2023 Pace |Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award. The Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award is presented annually to an emerging junior environmental law professor who exhibits scholarly excellence and promise at an early stage in his/her career. The Haub Environmental Law Faculty solicits nominations from law professors throughout the country and selects a recipient from that pool of nominations. The award recipient is invited to present his/her recent scholarship to the Haub Law community.

Professor Lisa Benjamin is an Associate Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland Oregon. Her research focuses on climate justice and climate risk, and how these issues intersect with energy law and administrative law. “Professor Lisa Benjamin has unique experience working in climate justice and climate risk,” said Professor Katrina Kuh, Haub Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law. “Her deep research on energy and climate justice and participation in international climate negotiations is the type of thought leadership and action that we look for when selecting Haub Law’s junior scholar.”

Professor Benjamin is a widely published scholar and has written a book and several articles and book chapters on non-state actors and climate risk, as well as energy and climate justice in developing countries, including small island developing states. Her book is titled “Companies and Climate Change: Theory and Law in the United Kingdom,” and her scholarship has been published in Transnational Environmental Law, Loyola Law Review, Utah Law Review, among many others. She is also the Vice Chair of the UNFCCC Compliance Committee (Facilitative Branch), a Director of Verde PDX (an environmental justice NGO), co-Chair of the Climate Accountability working group of the Climate Social Science Network, and a member of the Expert Peer Review Group in the Race to Zero campaign (a UN-backed global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery). Previously, she was the legal advisor to The Bahamas during the UNFCCC Paris Agreement negotiations.

“It is an honor to receive the 2022-2023 Pace | Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award,” said Professor Lisa Benjamin. “I am delighted to be recognized as an emerging scholar by the number one Environmental Law program in the United States. It is an incredible privilege to follow in the steps of such accomplished previous recipients. I am eager to share my scholarship and present my work at Haub Law.”

Professor Benjamin received her BA from McGill University, her LL.B. from the University College London, her LLM from University of London, and her PhD from the University of Leicester. Last year’s Distinguished Junior Scholar award recipient was Vanessa Casado Pérez, Associate Professor of Law, and Dean’s Research Chair at Texas A&M School of Law.

“We are proud to designate Professor Benjamin as our 2022-2023 Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award,” said Jason Czarnezki, Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law and Associate Dean of Environmental Law Programs and Strategic Initiatives. “The Haub Law community will benefit tremendously from learning more about Professor Benjamin’s innovative research in the areas of climate justice and climate risk.” Professor Lisa Benjamin will deliver a presentation to the Haub Law community in Fall 2023.