Justice Speaks: April

Where Will They Go? The Impact of International Climate Displacement

Wednesday, April 11, 2012
12:50–1:50 p.m.
Room W420
RSVP: jac@nyls.edu

Click here to watch a video of this event

Alice Thomas, Climate Displacement Program Manager at Refugees International
Professor Nicholas Robinson, University Professor on the Environment and Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law; Co-Director, Center for Environmental Legal Studies, Pace Law School
Moderated by: Aisha Elston-Wesley, 2011-2012 Carbonell Law and Policy Fellow, New York Law School

The impact of rising sea levels on island nations and natural disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake have devastating effects in the international community. Environmental degradation and natural disasters have forcibly displaced millions of people because their homes are uninhabitable, and millions more are bound to suffer from this crisis if climate change advances as rapidly as predicted. On Wednesday, April 11, 2012, the Justice Action Center welcomed Alice Thomas, Climate Displacement Program Manager at Refugees International, and Professor Nicholas Robinson, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law at Pace Law School, in a discussion regarding the consequences of climate change in the international community, the crossroads between climate change and refugee and asylum law, and the legal ramifications of this emerging crisis.

Continuing Legal Education (CLE)

This program was approved for one hour of CLE credit in professional practice for both transitional and non-transitional attorneys.

About the Speakers:

Alice Thomas, J.D., Climate Displacement Program Manager at Refugees International

Alice joined Refugees International in May 2010 as the Climate Displacement Program Manager. Alice previously worked as a staff attorney in the international program at Earthjustice (formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) where she implemented programs designed to defend and seek redress for communities from the impacts of pollution and climate change. Prior to working for Earthjustice, Alice served as Deputy Director of the American Bar Association’s Asia Law Initiative where she was responsible for overall management and implementation of ABA's technical legal assistance programs in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. She has also worked in Uzbekistan and Bosnia on issues related to environmental good governance and public participation in environmental decision-making. She began her career in the litigation practice groups at Dewey Ballantine and Arnold & Porter. Alice has a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School and a Bachelor’s degree in History from Princeton University.

Professor Nicholas A. Robinson, J.D., University Professor on the Environment and Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law; Co-Director, Center for Environmental Legal Studies

Professor Nicholas A. Robinson has developed environmental law since 1969, when he was named to the Legal Advisory Committee of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality. He has practiced environmental law in law firms for municipalities and as general counsel of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. He drafted New York’s wetlands and wild bird laws and was inaugurated as the first chairman of both the statutory Freshwater Wetlands Appeals Board and Greenway Heritage Conservancy for the Hudson River Valley. He has served as legal advisor and chairman of the Commission on Environmental Law of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, engaged in drafting treaties and counseling different countries on the preparation of their environmental laws. He founded Pace’s environmental law programs, edited the proceedings of the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is author of several books and numerous articles. He teaches a number of environmental law courses.

Professor Robinson served as James D. Hopkins Professor of Law during the 1991–1993 academic years.

On March 2009, the Pace University Board of Trustees conferred the position of University Professor for the Environment on Nicholas A. Robinson for his significant contribution to scholarship in the field of environmental law, both in the USA and abroad.