Carmen Gonzalez

Biography

After completing a federal judicial clerkship, Professor Gonzalez began her legal career in the San Francisco office of Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro, where she specialized in environmental litigation. She later served as an attorney at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and as Assistant Regional Counsel in the San Francisco office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Her responsibilities at EPA included enforcement of U.S. hazardous waste laws and participation in joint activities between the United States and Mexico to address environmental problems along the U.S.-Mexican border. Professor Gonzalez has also taught and/or worked on environmental law projects in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Ukraine, Moldova, and most recently China.

In 1998, Professor Gonzalez received a Fulbright Scholar award to teach international environmental law at the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2004-2005, she served as one of four U.S. Supreme Court Fellows selected by a panel of distinguished lawyers and judges appointed by the Chief Justice. Professor Gonzalez is a Life Member of Clare Hall (College for Advanced Study) at the University of Cambridge, and was a Visiting Scholar in Fall 2006 in the Faculties of Law and Land Economy and in the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge.

Professor Gonzalez is a member of the Executive Council of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section of Environmental Law. She is also a Member Scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform, a non-profit research and educational organization of university-affiliated academics that seeks to inform policy debates regarding environmental regulation. Professor Gonzalez has served as member and vice chair of the International Subcommittee of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), an advisory body to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on environmental justice matters. She has also represented non-governmental organizations in multilateral environmental treaty negotiations.

Professor Gonzalez writes and lectures on international environmental justice issues and on the relationship among international environmental law, international trade law, and economic development. She joined the faculty in 1999.

During academic year 2008-2009, Prof. Gonzalez will be teaching at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing China. The Hopkins-Nanjing Center is a joint academic venture between Johns Hopkins University and the University of Nanjing.

Articles

China in Latin America: Law, Economics, and Sustainable Development, 40 Environmental Law Reporter 10171 (2010), available at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1486506.

Squatters, Pirates, and Entrepreneurs: Is Informality the Solution to the Urban Housing Crisis? 40 U. Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev. 239 (2009), available at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1260040.

Is NAFTA a Good Model for China?: Lessons from Mexico and the United States, 5 Jiangxi Social Sciences 244 (2009), available at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1485231.

Environmental Impact Assessment in Post-Colonial Societies: Reflections on the Expansion of the Panama Canal, 4 Tenn. J. Law & Pol'y 303 (2008), available at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1260029.

Genetically Modified Organisms and Justice: the International Environmental Justice Implications of Biotechnology, 19 Geo. Int’l Envtl. L. Rev. 580 (2007), available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=986864.

Reality, Theory, and a Make-Believe World: The Fundamentalism of the “Free” Market, 5 Seattle J. Soc. J. 4999 (2007) (with Daniel Bonilla Maldonado & Colin Crawford).

Deconstructing the Mythology of Free Trade: Critical Reflections on Comparative Advantage, 17 Berkeley La Raza L.J. 65 (2006).

Markets, Monocultures and Malnutrition: Agricultural Trade Policy through an Environmental Justice Lens, 14 Mich. St. J. Int’l L. 345 (2006), available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=986852.

Trade Liberalization, Food Security and the Environment: the Neoliberal Threat to Sustainable Rural Development, 14 J. Transnat’l L. and Contemp. Problems 419 (2004), available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=987150.

Seasons of Resistance: Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Cuba, 16 Tul. Envtl L.J. 685 (2003), available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=987944.

Institutionalizing Inequality: The WTO Agreement on Agriculture, Food Security, and Developing Countries, 27 Colum. J. Envtl L. 433 (2002), excerpted in Human Rights and the Global Marketplace: Economic, Social and Cultural Dimensions (Transnational Publishers, 2004), available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=987945.

Beyond Eco-imperialism: An Environmental Justice Critique of Free Trade, 78 Denv. U. L. Rev. 979 (2001), excerpted in Comparative Urban Planning Law: An Introduction to Urban Land Development in the United States through the Lens of Comparing the Experience of Other Nations (Carolina Academic Press, 2003), available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=987941.

Book Chapters

An Environmental Justice Critique of Comparative Advantage: Lessons from the Mexican Neoliberal Economic Reforms, in Social and Economic Inequality: The Role of Law, Markets, and Social Structures (Emma Coleman Jordan and Charles Ogletree, eds., Russell Sage Foundation, 2010).

Book Reviews

Book Review: Global Agricultural Trade and Developing Countries, 5 World Trade Review 308 (2006),

Other Publications

Markets, Monocultures and Malnutrition: Agricultural Trade Policy through an Environmental Justice Lens (2007) (Center for Progressive Reform White Paper), available at: www.progressivereform.org/articles/Gonzalez_702.pdf.

Environmental Justice (with Member Scholars of the Center for Progressive Reform) (2006) (Center for Progressive Reform Perspectives Series), available at: www.progressiveregulation.org/perspectives/environJustice.cfm.

An Unnatural Disaster: The Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (2005). White paper co-authored with Member Scholars of the Center for Progressive Reform. Contributed to the section of the white paper entitled "The Two Americas," discussing issues of race, class and justice. The white paper is available at: www.progressivereform.org/Unnatural_Disaster_512.pdf.