桃瘾社区

Preston hall on the Elisabeth Haub School of Law campus in White Plains NY

Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law

The Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law was established in 1995 in the memory of Lloyd K. Garrison, who, along with his associate, Albert K. Butzel, of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, won the landmark decision to preserve Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River. This victory for the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference did more than safeguard "an area of unique beauty and major historical importance" - it inaugurated what today we recognize as the field of environmental law.

Standing in court to protect nature, citizen suit legislation, the environmental impact statement process, and the balancing of economics with the preservation of scenic beauty and historic resources: these are all rooted in Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission, 354 F.2d 608 (2d Cir. 1965). The Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture celebrates the vision, public spirit and life of this attorney whose legal acumen led citizens in their successful advocacy of environmental quality at Storm King.

  • Lloyd K. Garrison was a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law. His calling to the bar led him immediately into public service, helping to start the National Labor Relations Board while serving as Dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School. A great-grandson of William Lloyd Garrison, the abolitionist, he became a member of the National Urban League in 1924, and labored constantly in support of civil rights, defending Arthur Miller, Langston Hughes, and J. Robert Oppenheimer during the era of McCarthyism. Garrison鈥檚 service in support of honest and open government marked his role with the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and his participation on numerous federal commissions and agencies from Presidents Herbert Hoover through Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

    Lloyd K. Garrison passed away in 1991. For all his 93 years, Garrison devoted his brilliance and indefatigable energy to building a humane and caring society, respectful of the Rule of Law. Consistent with this dedication, Lloyd K. Garrison took up the citizens鈥 call to represent the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference in its struggle to protect the Hudson River Gorge at Storm King Mountain. With characteristic enthusiasm he championed public participation rights for the community鈥檚 environmental interest, just as he did for civil rights and liberties. The Scenic Hudson victory is a living testament to Garrison's ever hopeful spirit.

Past Garrison Lectures

Professor and Director of Center for Urban Environmental Reform鈥揅UNY Law
Aprill 16, 2024
"Mapping Injustice: Race, Place, and Environment in New York City"

Senior Counsel, White House Council on Environmental Quality Professor and Director of Faculty Scholarship and Research at Suffolk University School of Law
September 15, 2022
"Advancing Environmental Justice"

Director, Tanner Humanities Center, College Of Humanities, Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law, College Of Law, University of Utah S.J. Quinney School of Law
November 15, 2021
"Incorporating Human Rights: Corporate Responsibility, Equity, and Just Environments"

Elisabeth Haub School of Law professor, Smita Narula

Smita Narula

Haub Distinguished Professor of International Law
January 23, 2019
"Food Sovereignty as a Path to Environmental Justice"

Dr. Michael Puma, Director, Center for Climate Systems Research @ NASA GISS

Dr. Michael Puma

Director, Center for Climate Systems Research @ NASA GISS
Climate and Life Fellow, Center for Climate and Life
Columbia University in the City of New York
April 25, 2018
"De-risking the global food system in a changing climate

Ann E. Carlson, Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law, UCLA School of Law

Ann E. Carlson

Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law, UCLA School of Law
Faculty Co-Director, Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
April 19, 2017
"Pollution Hot Spots and the Clean Water Act"

Michael B. Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia Law School

Michael B. Gerrard

Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia Law School
April 6, 2016
"Tragic Legal Choices in Keeping Below Two Degrees"

Robin Kundis Craig, William H. Leary Professor of Law University of Utah

Robin Kundis Craig

William H. Leary Professor of Law
University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law
April 1, 2015
"Learning to Live with the Trickster: Narrating Climate Change and the Value of Resilience Thinking"

J.B. Ruhl, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law, Vanderbilt Law School

J.B. Ruhl

David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law
Vanderbilt Law School
March 26, 2014
鈥淚n Defense of Ecosystem Services"

Lisa Heinzerling, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Lisa Heinzerling

Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
March 12, 2013
鈥淚nside EPA"

  • March 26, 2012

    Jody Freeman
    Archibald Cox Professor of Law and Director, Environmental Law Program
    Harvard Law School
    鈥淐limate and Energy Policy in the Obama Administration"

    April 6, 2011

    Daniel A. Farber
    Sho Sato Professor of Law
    University of California, Berkeley
    鈥淪ustainable Consumption and Communities: Bringing the American Way of Life into the Twenty-First Century鈥

    April 15, 2010

    Albert K. Butzel
    Principal, Albert K. Butzel Law Offices, New York, NY
    鈥淪torm King Revisited: A View from the Mountaintop鈥

    April 1, 2009

    Robert V. Percival
    Robert F. Stanton Professor of Law and Director of the Environmental Law Program
    University of Maryland School of Law
    "The Globalization of Environmental Law"

    April 17, 2008

    Hope Babcock
    Professor of Law
    Georgetown University
    "Global Climate Change: A Civic Republican Moment"

    2007

    John Bonine
    Professor of Law
    University of Oregon School of Law
    鈥淔rom Silent Spring to Sweltering Summers: The Past and Future of Private Public Interest Law鈥

    2006

    Karin P. Sheldon
    Professor of Law, Associate Dean for the Environmental Law Program
    Vermont Law School
    鈥淯pstream of Peril: The Role of Federal Lands in Addressing the Extinction Crisis"

    2005

    Cass R. Sunstein
    Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence
    University of Chicago Law School
    鈥淚rreversible and Catastrophic: Global Warming, Terrorism, and Other Problems鈥

    2004

    Edith Brown Weiss
    Francis Cabell Brown Professor of Law
    Georgetown University Law Center
    鈥淚nternational Water Disputes鈥

    2003

    J. William Futrell
    President of the Environmental Law Institute (ELI)
    鈥淭he Transition to Sustainable Development Law鈥

    2002

    Zygmunt J. B. Plater
    Professor of Law
    Boston College Law School
    鈥淓nvironmental Law at the Crossroads: The Road Travelled and the Road Ahead鈥

    2001

    Gerald Torres
    H. O. Head Centennial Professor in Real Property Law
    University of Texas Law School
    "Who Owns the Sky?"

    2000

    A. Dan Tarlock
    Distinguished Professor of Law and Co-Director Program in Environmental and Energy Law
    Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology
    "The Future of Environmental 'Rule of Law' Litigation"

    1999

    Richard J. Lazarus
    Professor of Law
    Georgetown University Law Center
    "Thirty Years of Environmental Protection Law in the Supreme Court"

    1998

    Oliver A. Houck
    Professor of Law and Director of Environmental Law Programs
    Tulane University School of Law
    "Environmental Law and the General Welfare"

    1997

    William H. Rodgers, Jr.
    Professor of Law
    University of Washington School of Law
    "Defeating Environmental Law: The Geology of Legal Advantage"

    1996

    Joseph L. Sax
    Counselor to Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy
    US Department of the Interior
    "Using Property Rights to Attack Environmental Protection"

    1995

    David Sive, Esq.
    Founding Partner, Sive, Paget, & Reisel, PC
    Adjunct Professor of Law, 桃瘾社区 Law School
    "The Litigation Process in the Development of Environmental Law"

In Memoriam: Two Founders of Environmental Law

David Sive (1922鈥2014)
Joseph Sax (1936鈥2014)

The Elisabeth Haub School of Law and environmental law professors across the nation mourned the passing of two giants of environmental law, and . Prior to the 2014 Garrison Lecture, our community took time to remember their lives and achievements.

Memorial Essay by Professor Nicholas A. Robinson (PDF)