WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Judges from across Canada, Mexico and USA will gather at the NYS Judicial Institute on the campus of Pace Law School in White Plains, New York, on December 6-8, 2004, for a UN meeting on the environment. More than 40 judges will compare how environmental cases are handled in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, England, Mexico, as well as several of the States in the USA.

Increasingly complex and difficult environmental cases challenge courts worldwide. How should courts resolve legal conflicts that arise when free trade rights clash with public health laws? When should international environmental law prevail over national laws that do not protect ecological values? How should disputes about bio-engineered crops or products be he handled by courts? When state constitutions set stronger standards than federal law, how are these rules enforced?

Environmental law cases always involve issue of scientific evidence and the uncertainty of predicting future impacts. Court in different nations around the world have pioneered important judicial techniques for handling environmental disputes. The meeting will compare best judicial practices around the world.

This is the first Judicial Symposium on the Judiciary & Environmental Law held in North America. It is sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature & Natural Resources (IUCN), and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), along with the New York State Judicial Institute and the National Judicial Institute of Canada. UNEP and IUCN previously have held such regional Symposia in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America. Pace was invited to host the Symposium in recognition of its world renown environmental law expertise. The American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy & Natural Resources is also a cosponsor.

Keynote speakers include Justice Paul Stein, Court of Appeals for New South Wales, Australia, Sir Robert Carnwath, Justice of Appeals for England and Wales, Justice Omar Sherif, Deputy Chief Justice of Egypt, Judge Neofito Lopez Ramos, Federal Appeals Court, Mexico, and Justice Charles Gonthier, Supreme Court of Canada (retired), Judge Jan Van den Berghe, District Court of Gent, Belgium.

 Pace Professor Nicholas Robinson, who recently chaired a similar Symposium in Bangkok, Thailand, on November 17, 2004, said “It is one more sign of globalization that national judges are meeting together for the first time in each region. The growing volume of environmental problems worldwide has magnified the role that courts must play in addressing the environmental rights of the public. This is the first time state and federal judges from Canada, Mexico and the USA have met together on this topic. We share the same air pollution, weather patterns, migratory species, and patterns of water pollution. NAFTA has made North America one free-trade zone. We cannot afford to have inconsistent judicial practices in the courts of North America. This Symposium will identify ways courts can harmonize their practices in the complex and growing field of environmental law.”

Founded in 1976, Pace Law School is a New York Law School with a suburban campus in White Plains, N.Y., 20 miles north of New York City. Part of Pace University, the school offers the J.D. program for full-time and part-time day and evening students. Its postgraduate program includes the LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees in Environmental Law and an LL.M. in Comparative Legal Studies. Pace has one of the nation's top-rated Environmental Law programs and its Clinical Education program also is nationally ranked, offering clinics in domestic violence prosecution, environmental law, securities arbitration, criminal justice and disability rights. www.law.pace.edu 

Pace is a comprehensive, independent university with campuses in New York City, Pleasantville and White Plains, NY and a Hudson Valley Center at Stewart International Airport in New Windsor, NY. More than 14,000 students are enrolled in undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs in the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, Lubin School of Business, School of Computer Science and Information Systems, School of Education, Lienhard School of Nursing and Pace Law School. www.pace.edu