James May

Executive Committee | Education Committee Co-Chair | Fellow since 2008

Washburn

Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law

(302) 477-2060 (work)

(130) 298-30233 (mobile)

[email protected]

Topeka, Kansas

Region 7 IA, KS, MO, and NE

ACOEL Committees

Education Committee Outreach Committee

Environmental Law Topic

Administrative Law Climate Environmental Enforcement Environmental Justice Sustainability

James R. May, Esq. is Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law at Washburn University, where he teaches environmental law, constitutional law and human rights, and co-directs the program in environmental, energy and resources law. May also serves as Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at Widener University, where he was Chief Sustainability Officer and founded programs in Human Dignity Rights and Environmental Rights, and helped establish joint programs with universities around the globe. May has served as Visiting Professor at Georgetown, Duquesne, Hawai’i, Pace, Pittsburgh, Utah, Vermont, and with universities in Brazil, Haiti, France, Germany, Pakistan, Spain, South Africa, Turkey and elsewhere. May has published 20 casebooks and treatises and more than 120 book chapters spanning environmental law and human rights. He is the founder of Dignity Rights Advocates, a member of Phi Kappa Phi, and recipient of the American Bar Association’s Award for Distinguished Achievement and many other awards.

Degrees

BS (Mechanical Engineering), JD, LLM

Admissions

Kansas
Pennsylvania

Court Admissions

U.S. Supreme Court; 2, 3, 5, 9, 11th Circuit; Various federal district courts

Professional Societies and Organizations

ABA

Other Environmental Career Experience

Taught environmental law and related courses since 1991.

Representative Publications (not including ACOEL Blogs)

ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS: RECOGNITION, IMPLEMENTATION, OUTCOMES, AND ALTERNATIVES (Edward Elgar, 2026); CLIMATE RIGHTS: CASES AND CONTEXTS (Lulu Press 2024); MODERN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW (Lulu Press 2023); MODERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (Lulu Press 2023); MODERN FIRST AMENDMENT LAW (Lulu Press 2022); DIGNITY UNDER LAW: A GLOBAL HANDBOOK FOR CIVIL SOCIETY (Dignity Rights International, 2021); DIGNITY LAW: GLOBAL RECOGNITION, CASES AND PERSPECTIVES (W.S. Hein 2020); ADVANCED INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN DIGNITY AND LAW (Edward Elgar 2020); ENVIRONMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE (Cambridge University Press 2023), with W. Frank Baber; PUTTING DIGNITY IN PRACTICE: IMPLEMENTING THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION’S RECOGNITION OF HUMAN DIGNITY AS FOUNDATIONAL TO THE RULE OF LAW, American Bar Association, Center for Human Rights 2021; ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS: THE DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDS (Cambridge University Press 2020) with Stephen Turner, Dinah Shelton, Jona Razzaque and Owen McIntyre; HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: INDIVISIBILITY, DIGNITY, LEGALITY, GEOGRAPHY, Encyclopedia of Environmental Law (Edward Elgar Press 2019).; Dignity Rights in America, ¬¬(forthcoming, available on SSRN, BePress, ResearchGate, and Academia)
Subnational Climate Rights in America, 26 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 26 (2024), available on SSRN,
ResearchGate, Academia and BePress
From the Courtroom to the Frontlines: A Roadmap for Advancing Environmental Justice, 50 Human Rts. ___ (2024) with Quentin Pair and Nadia Ahmad. Available on SSRN, BePress, ResearchGate, Academia and available here
Is There a Human Right to a Healthy Climate?, 50 Human Rts. ___ (2024), available on SSRN, BePress, ResearchGate, Academia and available here
“ESG as a corporate sustainability mechanism,” (2024), "Cadernos de Dereito Actual",with Orlando Zanon and Camila Monteiro Santos.
Climate Rights in Brazil and the United States: A Convergence in Contrasts, 56 Case W. Res. Int’l L. 439 (2024), with Marcelo Buzaglo Dantas and Luciene Bauer, available on SSRN, BePress, ResearchGate, Academia, and available here
Critique of Juspositivist Theory of Judicial Decision, 29 Novos Estudos Juridicos 1 (2024), with Marcelo Buzaglo Dantas and Orlando Luiz Zanon, available on SSRN, BePress, ResearchGate, and Academia
"Still Not at All: Environmental Sustainability in the Supreme Court," 92 UMKC L. Rev., 724; “Environmental Human Rights,” HANDBOOK OF COMPARATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming 2024), edited by Tseming Yang and Anastasia Telesetsky “Can the Constitution Save the Planet?,” in DEMOCRACY IN A HOTTER TIME: CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEMOCRATIC TRANSFORMATION (David W. Orr, ed., MIT Press 2023), with Katarina Fischer Kuh; “Environment and Economic and Social Rights,” THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RIGHTS (Cambridge University Press 2023); “Ethics and the Profession: 2020 Annual Report,” Environment, Energy, and Resources Law: The Year in Review 2020 (ABA 2021), with Katherine Kuh.

Illustrative Projects

ABA Environmental Justice; ABA Dignity Rights; Chief Sustainability Officer (Widener University)

Citations of Major Published Cases

Lead counsel in cases throughout the federal system; Petition and Request for Precautionary Measures on behalf of SAKALA and Six Children of Cité Soleil, Haiti, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, filed 4 February 2021
Sierra Club, Inc. v. Leavitt, 488 F.3d 904 (11th Cir. 2007)
New York v. EPA, 443 F.3d 880 (D.C. Cir. 2006) (Counsel for Appellant Del. Nature Soc’y)
New York v. Env't Prot. Agency, 431 F.3d 801 (D.C. Cir. 2005)(Clean Air Act)(challenging 2002 Rule weakening PSD and NSR program),
Fla. Pub. Int. Rsch. Grp. Citizen Lobby, Inc. v. E.P.A., 386 F.3d 1070 (11th Cir. 2004) (improving water quality standards and species protection in Florida),
Sierra Club, Inc. v. Leavitt, No. 04-16154 (11th Cir. 2004)
Riverkeeper, Inc. v. U.S. E.P.A., 358 F.3d 174 (2d Cir. 2004)(Clean Water Act)
Federal District Courts
CORALations v. U.S. E.P.A., 477 F. Supp. 2d 413 (D.P.R. 2001); CORALations v. Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Auth. 2008 WL 11495185, (D.P.R. Mar. 13, 2008)
St. Johns Riverkeeper, Inc. v. U.S. EPA, No. 4:06-CV-00332 (N.D. Fla. 2008)
CORALations v. EPA, 477 F.Supp.2d 413 (D.P.R 2007)
Fla. Pub. Int. Rsch Grp. Citizen Lobby, Inc. v. EPA, No. 07-11745 (11th Cir. filed Apr. 18, 2007)
Save Our Big Scrub v. Norton, No. 6:04-CV-00349 (M.D. Fla. 2004)(Counsel for plaintiffs Sierra Club and Fla. Native Plants Soc’y, Inc.)
Del. Nature Soc’y v. EPA, No. 03-1453 (D.C. Cir. filed Dec. 22, 2003)
United States and State of Delaware et al. v. Motiva (N.D. Tex.) Civil Action No. H-01-0978, November 3, 2003 (Clean Air Act Enforcement Action, successful consent decree),
Deer Creek Watershed Ass’n v. Susquehanna River Basin Comm’n, No. 1:03-CV-00680 (D. Md. closed Sept. 30, 2003) Docket
Clean Air Council v. Sunoco, Inc. (R&M), No. CIV.A. 02-1553 GMS, 2003 WL 1785879 (D. Del. Apr. 2, 2003)
Del. Nature Soc’y v. EPA, No. 03-1040 (D.C. Cir. filed Feb. 21, 2003) Docket
Am. Littoral Soc. v. U.S. E.P.A. Region, 199 F. Supp. 2d 217 (D.N.J. 2002)(Clean Water Act; Endangered Species Act)
Am. Canoe Ass’n, Inc. v. EPA, No. 1:02-CV-00018 (S.D.W. Va. filed Jan. 7, 2002) Docket
Sierra Club v. U.S. E.P.A., 162 F. Supp. 2d 406 (D. Md. 2001)(Clean Water Act; Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act)
Am. Canoe Ass'n, Inc. v. U.S. E.P.A., 30 F. Supp. 2d 908 (E.D. Va. 1998)(Clean Water Act; Endangered Species Act); Am. Canoe Ass'n, Inc. v. U.S. E.P.A., 138 F. Supp. 2d 722 (E.D. Va. 2001)
Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc. v. NVF Co., No. CIV. A. 97-496-SLR, 1998 WL 372299 (D. Del. June 25, 1998)(Clean Water Act; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act)
Am. Canoe Ass’n v. EPA, No. 2:99-CV-06279 (E.D. Pa. filed Dec. 9, 1999) Docket
Sierra Club v. EPA, No. 1:98-CV-00927 (D. Md. closed May 26, 1998) Docket
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Environmental Protection et al. v. Borough of Kennett Square (E.D. Pa 1997)(consent decree), available here
Am. Littoral Soc’y v. EPA, 943 F.Supp. 548 (E.D. Pa. 1996) Opinion, Docket
Am. Littoral Soc’y v. EPA, No. 2:96-CV-00489 (E.D. Pa. closed by consent decree Apr. 9, 1997) Docket
Am. Littoral Soc’y v. Paul Restall Co., No. 2:90-CV-07622 (E.D. Pa. filed Nov. 30, 1990), Docket, Opinion (unpublished order re: discovery, 1992 WL 38406 (Feb. 25, 1992))
State Courts
Funk v. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (Pa. Env. Hrg. Bd 2013)(climate case)