WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – October 21, 2004 -- How much can and should the U.S. collaborate with other countries?

The broad issue has been heatedly raised in the U.S. Presidential campaign. For the environment, obstacles and opportunities for international rules will be discussed in a public lecture at Pace University Law School, 78 North Broadway, in White Plains on November 8 at 5:00 pm.

Daniel C. Esty, a professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University who holds faculty appointments in Yale’s schools of both Environment and Law, will deliver Pace Law School’s fifth annual Gilbert and Sarah Kerlin Lecture on Environmental Law in the Robert B. Fleming Moot Court Room. A reception will follow. Both are open to the public free of charge.

Titling his lecture "Bringing Administrative Law to Bear in Global Environmental Governance," Esty will explore the widespread hesitancy about global governance among citizens and officials.

One obstacle, he will argue, is doubts about whether global political leaders can be held accountable for their actions.

In addition, he will explain how the legitimacy of international policy processes is undermined by the lack of basic elements of administrative law.

He will suggest that the well-established elements of good governance and public decision making that have emerged in the U.S. need to be adopted internationally, including transparency, disclosing decision makers’ financial interests, publicly identifying people engaged in lobbying, creating an "administrative record," and building structured processes for identifying policy alternatives. Esty believes these are needed as the foundation for legitimate global-scale governance in the environmental realm and beyond.

Pace Law School has a joint degree program with Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (J.D./M.E.M).

Esty is the director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, as well as the Yale World Fellows Program, and is the author or editor of books and articles on environmental policy issues and the relationships between the environment and trade, competitiveness, globalization, security, international institutions and development. He has served in a variety of positions at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and been a Senior Fellow at the Institute for International Economics, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

Esty earned his B.A. in economics summa cum laude from Harvard University and his J.D. from Yale, where he was executive editor of the Yale Journal on Regulation. He was a Rhodes Scholar from 1981-1983.

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