Justice Antonio Herman Benjamin of the National High Court of Brazil,
and a renowned leader in the global environmental law community, served
as the International Jurist-in-Residence at the University of Hawai‘i
William S. Richardson School of Law from March 28-April 2, 2016.
Justice
Benjamin spent a busy week giving a public talk on “Emerging
Comparative Environmental Law Trends”, giving lectures and informal
meetings with JD and LLM students, spending time with the Hawai‘i
Supreme Court and the judges of Hawaii’s new Environmental Court,
meeting Governor David Ige and state legislators, and meeting with a
cross-section of Hawaiʻi environmental lawyers.
Justice
Benjamin is the Chair of the World Commission on Environmental Law,
which is one of the six global commissions of the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). At the Law School, he conducted
an IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) workshop with
Environmental Law students as they prepare to participate in the IUCN
World Conservation Congress (also known as the “Olympics of
Conservation”) scheduled to be held in Hawai‘i from September 1-10,
2016.
The
IUCN is a global consortium of nations, universities, institutes, and
agencies that are working to find pragmatic solutions for pressing
global environmental and development challenges. The UH Law Schoolʻs
Environmental Law Program was recently admitted as a formal voting
member of the IUCN.
“It
is a genuine honor and pleasure to host a person of Justice Benjamin’s
stature in the field of law and within the global environmental
community,” said Law Dean Avi Soifer. “Our law students and our
community are most fortunate to be able to meet him one-on-one and to
hear his views on vital environmental issues. He is also a global leader
in the growing trend to launch environmental courts as a major step
toward a healthy and sustainable future.”
Justice
Benjamin has had an extraordinary career that has taken him from 20
years of service as Assistant Attorney General of the Brazilian State of
Sao Paulo, as well as head of the Environmental Protection Division for
several years, to international prominence as founding President of
both the Brazilian Consumer Law and Policy Institute and the Law for a
Green Planet Institute.
He
is a former member of Brazil’s Fulbright Alumni Association and a
member of the UN Secretary General Legal Expert Group on Crimes against
the Environment. He is also a professor at the Catholic University of
Brasilia School of Law, and, since 1994, has been a visiting professor
at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin.
Associate
Dean Denise Antolini commented: “Justice Benjamin’s visit to Hawaiʻi
helps us add a critical global dimension to our perspective on
environmental law issues. He is spearheading an international effort to
support environmental courts and tribunals around the world, and
looking to us in Hawaiʻi as the leader in the U.S. Last May, he helped
to train our Hawaiʻi environmental court judges by providing a video
keynote address. His extraordinary week-long visit to Hawaiʻi, six
months in advance of the World Conservation Congress, helps our
students, faculty, and entire legal community prepare for Hawaiʻiʻs role
on the global stage, not just in September for the IUCN Congress but
for the long-term. We are really delighted and honored to host Justice
Benjamin, one of the worldʻs great environmental jurists.”
"Justice Antonio Benjamin chats with LLM students Rico Von Allmen (Switzerland) and Aichatou Kimba (Niger)."
Justice Antonio Benjamin was this year's International Jurist-in-Residence at the University of Hawaii's law school.
For more information on the University of Hawaii Law School LLM program contact Spencer Kimura at:
kimurasp@hawaii.edu
