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, Brazil, Guatemala, Argentina, Ukraine, Moldova, and China.

Professor Gonzalez was a Fulbright Scholar in Argentina, a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University in the UK, and a Visiting Professor at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing, China.  She is President-Elect of the Environmental Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools, a member of the Research Committee of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Academy of Environmental Law, and 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. In 2004-2005, Professor Gonzalez served as one of four U.S. Supreme Court Fellows selected by a panel of distinguished lawyers and judges appointed by the Chief Justice. She has served as member and vice-chair of the International Subcommittee of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (an advisory body to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on environmental justice issues), and has represented non-governmental organizations in multilateral environmental treaty negotiations.

Professor Gonzalez writes and lectures on international environmental law, environmental justice, and food security. She joined the faculty in 1999.

Books

Democracia, derecho y economía de mercado  [Democracy, Law, and Economics] (Temis, Universidad de los Andes Press; Bogotá, Colombia: 2010) (with Daniel Bonilla Maldonado and Colin Crawford, coordinators). 

Articles

The Global Food Crisis: Law, Policy, and the Elusive Quest for Justice, 13 Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal 462 (2010), available at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1567231

 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=1486486 (in English) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1485231 (in Chinese)

 Environmental Impact Assessment in Post-Colonial Societies: Reflections on the Proposed 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), excerpted in Stephen McCaffrey & Rachael Salcido, Global Issues in Environmental Law (West Group 2009), available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=986864.

 Deconstructing the Mythology of Free Trade: Critical Reflections on Comparative Advantage, 17 Berkeley La Raza L.J. 65 (2006), available at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1588987

 Markets, Monocultures and Malnutrition: Agricultural Trade Policy through an Environmental Justice Lens, 14 Mich. St. J. Int'l L. 345 (2006), reprinted in L. Lakshmi, Environment and Health: Issues and Implications (Amicus Books, ICFAI University Press, 2008), 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), reprinted at http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/bibarticles/gonzalez_seasons.pdf,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), 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 James Kushner, 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 and Introductions

El Liberalismo neoclásico, el libre mercado y sus críticos [Neoliberalism, the Free Market, and their Critics], introduction to Democracia, derecho y economía, (Temis, Universidad de los Andes Press; Bogotá, Colombia: 2010) (with Daniel Bonilla Maldonado and Colin Crawford), available at SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1558703

 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).

Reality, Theory and a Make-Believe World: the Fundamentalism of the "Free" Market (with Daniel Bonilla Maldonado and Colin Crawford), 5 Seattle J. for Social Justice 499 (2007) (symposium introduction).

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.