Conceiving Laws for the Biosphere: 17th Distinguished Visitor Nick Robinson

Nicholas A. Robinson, the Gilbert & Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor in Environmental Law at Pace University School of Law, was Lewis & Clark's 17th annual Natural Resources Law Institute Distinguished Visitor in September. Professor Robinson presented an eloquent public lecture, “Conceiving Laws for the Biosphere: A Comparative Law Critique,” on September 23, 2004. His article, "IUCN as Catalyst for a Law of the Biosphere: Acting Globally and Locally," was published in 35 Environmental Law (2005).

Prof. Robinson, a graduate of Brown University and Columbia University School of Law, founded the environmental legal studies program at Pace University School of Law in 1978. He was an International Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. During his illustrious career Prof. Robinson clerked for federal Judge Morris E. Lasker, practiced environmental law internationally with law firms in London and New York, served under five presidents as a US delegate to the environmental law negotiations between the USA and USSR, and provided expert counsel on Russian environmental law to the United Nations, the Food & Agricultural Organization, the World Bank, and others. He has also taught law at the National University of Singapore and at University College (London), and has lectured by invitation at numerous universities around the world. He received the Elizabeth Haub Prize in Environmental Law from l’Université Libre de Bruxelles.

The World Conservation Congress elected Prof. Robinson to Chair the Commission on Environmental Law of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). He also currently serves as IUCN’s Legal Advisor and is Legal Advisor to IUCN’s Observer Mission to the United Nations. He was elected Chairman of the Board for the World Environment Center and the International Vice President of the Sierra Club. He has chaired environmental law committees for many bar associations and is the drafter of New York’s Tidal Wetland Act and Wild Birds Law.

Prof. Robinson is author or editor of two treatises, seven books, and over 150 articles. His two treatises have been translated and published in Russian and Chinese.