Pace I Haub Environmental Law

Considering a career in environmental law academia?

Join us for the 13th Annual Future Environmental Law Professors Workshop on Friday, September 18, at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.

If you're thinking about a career in environmental law academia, this workshop is an invaluable opportunity to prepare for the hiring process, strengthen your presentation skills, and connect with members of the environmental law teaching community.

Register TODAY ➡️https://bit.ly/3TIE9l7

Each summer, students in the Pace I Haub Environmental Law gain firsthand experience at the intersection of environmental law and policy through our D.C. Externship Program. This year's externs spent seven weeks in Washington, D.C., working full-time with leading organizations, including DC Water, the National Wildlife Federation, the Coastal States Organization, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), and the Federation of American Scientists, while participating in a seminar on federal regulatory practice.

We were grateful to celebrate this year's externs with our alumni, faculty, students, and friends at our annual D.C. Alumni & Friends Reception. Thank you to our faculty, mentors, host organizations, and alumni network for the guidance, support, and connections that make this experiential learning opportunity so meaningful.

Congratulations to this year's externs: Carlee Unger, Elena Fasullo, Dayana Henderson, Maia Carney, and Stephen Badea!

Recent scholarship by Professor Josh Galperin of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University has been cited by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a significant federal decision addressing the EPA's obligations under the Noise Control Act.

In Quiet Communities, Inc. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the court rejected the EPA's argument that decades of non-enforcement of the Noise Control Act were justified because Congress had defunded the agency's noise office in the early 1980s. The court held that Congress never repealed the statute and that the EPA's statutory obligations remained in effect.

The decision cites Professor Galperin's article, "Noise Law," published in the Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law, which examines the legal consequences of Congress's decision to defund the EPA's noise program while leaving the underlying statutory mandates intact.

Professor Galperin also explored related questions of congressional appropriations, statutory interpretation, and agency authority in his article "Interpreting Congress," published in the Wisconsin Law Review.

Read Professor Galperin's scholarship:
"Noise Law" — Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law ➡️ https://bit.ly/3RTczkC

"Interpreting Congress" — Wisconsin Law Review ➡️ https://bit.ly/4hthQd3

Team Registration for NELMCC 2027 is Now Open!

We invite law schools from across the country to register their teams for the 2027 The Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (NELMCC), one of the nation's largest interschool moot court competitions.

Join us at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in White Plains, New York, February 17–20, 2027, where teams will brief and argue cutting-edge legal issues before distinguished practitioners, scholars, and members of the judiciary.

Since its founding in 1989, NELMCC has provided a unique forum for law students to engage with complex and evolving questions of environmental law while strengthening their appellate advocacy skills and competing alongside talented students from law schools across the country.

Register your team TODAY ➡️ nelmcc.pace.edu
Learn more about the competition ➡️ https://www.pace.edu/law/academics/environmental-law-program/programs-and-partnerships/national-environmental-law-moot

Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University Professor Achinthi Vithanage has been appointed Chair of the newly established Human Rights and the Environment Specialist Group of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law (WCEL) for the 2025–2029 term.

Professor Vithanage will serve alongside Deputy Chair Lorena C. in leading the Specialist Group, which serves as a legal advisory and knowledge platform bringing together scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and experts working at the intersection of human rights and environmental law.

The Specialist Group supports research, collaboration, and legal dialogue on emerging issues in environmental governance while promoting greater integration of human rights principles into environmental law and policy.

New scholarship by Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University Assistant Professor Camila Bustos and LL.M. candidate Mercè Martí i Exposito examines the intersection of climate justice, human rights, and self-determination.

Their article, "Climate Justice for Puerto Rico: The Right to Stay and Energy Sovereignty," appears in the latest issue of the William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review, "Shifting Shores, Shifting Populations: Climate Migration and Coastal Resilience."

The article examines how climate change and colonial governance intersect in Puerto Rico, arguing that climate vulnerability cannot be separated from questions of self-determination. Drawing on international human rights law, the authors explore how communities are advancing the rights to self-determination and to stay through grassroots efforts to resist displacement and develop community-led energy systems.

Read the article: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmelpr/vol50/iss3/6/

Team Registration for NELMCC 2027 is Now Open! The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is pleased to announce that registration is open for the 38th The Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (NELMCC), to be held February 17-20, 2027 in White Plains, New York.

Since its founding in 1989, NELMCC has provided a unique forum for law students nationwide to engage deeply with complex and evolving questions of environmental law. The competition challenges teams to brief and argue cutting-edge issues before panels of distinguished practitioners, scholars, and members of the judiciary.

NELMCC is recognized as the nation’s largest interschool moot court focused on environmental law and has long served as a training ground for future leaders in the field.

We invite law schools to register their teams and join this tradition of advocacy and academic excellence!

Learn more about the competition ➡️ https://www.pace.edu/law/academics/environmental-law-program/programs-and-partnerships/national-environmental-law-moot

Congratulations to members of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University’s Class of 2026 who were recognized by the White Plains Bar Association at its Annual Meeting. Professor Jon Brown, Director of the Food and Farm Business Law Clinic, presented the awards honoring three graduating students: Ugo N., recipient of the Isaac Rubin Clinical Lawyering Award; Hope Newkirk, J.D., recipient of the Ethics and Professionalism Award; and Carington Lowe, recipient of the Bohn Vergari Public Service Award for Best Environmental Law Student.

The awards, which included a monetary gift from the White Plains Bar Association, were also recognized as part of the Law School’s 2026 Commencement honors. We are grateful to the White Plains Bar Association for its continued support of Haub Law students and for recognizing excellence in clinical education, professionalism, public service, and environmental law.

Congratulations to Ugo, Hope, and Carington on this well-deserved recognition, and best wishes as they begin the next chapter of their legal careers.

Lauren Roth, Associate Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Health Law and Policy Certificate at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, and Ethan Ickovics Thorpe, Climate Governance Fellow at the Vanderbilt Private Climate Governance (PCG) Lab, have posted their article, Private Health Governance, to SSRN.

Forthcoming in The Environmental Law Reporter (2026), the article explores how private governance mechanisms within the healthcare sector could help advance environmental sustainability and reduce public health harms amid broader regulatory retrenchment.

The paper examines how healthcare accreditation and quality-control regimes may provide pathways for improving environmental performance where public governance is limited.

Read the abstract ➡️ https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6754804

Last week, the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University welcomed the 2026 Pace I Haub Environmental Law Summer D.C. Externship cohort for an intensive multi-day bootcamp designed to prepare students for practice in the environmental law and policy space in Washington, D.C.

Through sessions led by faculty, alumni, practitioners, current students, and program partners, participants engaged with topics including federal environmental regulatory practice, environmental litigation, administrative law, professionalism, networking, and career pathways in D.C.

Thank you to the many faculty members, alumni, practitioners, staff, and students who contributed their time and expertise throughout the week in preparing students for their summer placements across Washington, D.C. Special thanks to Professor Achinthi Vithanage for leading this year’s bootcamp, and to Adjunct Professors Kristen S. DeWire and Steve Solow, who will continue mentoring and supporting students throughout their externship experience this summer.

Wishing our 2026 externs, Carlee Unger, Elena Fasullo, Dayana Henderson, Maia Carney, and Stephen Badea, the best of luck this summer in Washington, D.C.