Directory of fellows
Cymie R. Payne
Fellow since 2019
New Brunswick,
New Jersey
Region 2 NJ, NY, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and 8 federally recognized Indian Nations
Environmental Law Topic
Cymie is Professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She has appeared as counsel before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in its deep seabed mining, IUU fisheries, and climate change advisory opinion cases. Since 2017 she has been legal advisor to International Union for Conservation of Natures delegation to UN meetings for a legally binding agreement on conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction and Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, Ocean Law Specialist Group. She has also been a member of the Berkeley Law faculty and served as attorney with the U.S. Department of
the Interior, the law firm of Goodwin, Procter and the United Nations Security Council’s environmental war reparations program. She has been a member of the American Society of International Law Executive Council. She holds a MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley.
the Interior, the law firm of Goodwin, Procter and the United Nations Security Council’s environmental war reparations program. She has been a member of the American Society of International Law Executive Council. She holds a MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley.
Degrees
- Berkeley Law, JD
- Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, MA
Admissions
- California
- Massachusetts
Court Admissions
US Supreme CourtProfessional Societies and Organizations
- American Society of International Law
- European Society of International Law
- International Law Association
- International Union for Conservation of Nature, World Commission on Environmental Law
Other Environmental Career Experience
- Visiting Scholar, Environmental Law Institute (2023-present)
- Member, Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (2023-present)
- Board of Editors, American Society of International Law, Insights (2008-2016)
- Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, Board of Directors (2023-present)
- BBNJ Informal Dialogues, Steering Committee (2023-present)
Representative Publications (not including ACOEL Blogs)
- K. Hassanali and C.R. Payne, “Part IV, Environmental Impact Assessments,” in Marine Biodiversity beyond National Jurisdiction: A Commentary and Analysis (Joanna Mossop and David Freestone, eds, Oxford University Press, 2025).
- C.R. Payne, State Responsibility, in Routledge Handbook of Deep-Sea Mining and the Law of the Sea (Virginie Tassin Campanella, ed., Taylor and Francis, 2024).
- C.R. Payne, Responsibility to the international community for marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, 11:1 Cambridge International Law Journal 24–50 (2022).
- C.R. Payne, International Law and Valuation for Climate Loss and Damage, Research Handbook on Climate Change Law and Loss & Damage (Meinhard Doelle, Sara Seck, eds., Edward Elgar, 2021).
- C.R. Payne, Judicial Developments: Normative Development, in Oxford Handbook of International Environmental Law (Jacqueline Peel, Lavanya Rajamani, eds. 2d ed., Oxford University Press, 2021).
- C.R. Payne & P.H. Sand, eds,, Gulf War Reparations and the UN Compensation Commission: Environmental Liability (Oxford University Press, 2011).