Catherine O'Neill

Catherine A. O’Neill

Visiting Research Professor of Law

 Sullivan Hall 455

 206-398-4030

Email Catherine

Curriculum Vitae

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Environmental Law
  • Environmental Justice
  • Natural Resources Law

EDUCATION

  • BA, University of Notre Dame, 1987
  • JD, University of Chicago Law School, 1990
  • Harvard Law School
    • Ford Foundation Graduate Fellow in Public International Law, 1990- 1992
    • Researched international environment and development policy; European Union law
    • Attended graduate law program, College d’Europe, Bruges, Belgium, 1990- 1991

Biography

Catherine’s (she/her) work focuses on issues of environmental law and policy, particularly environmental justice and American Indian nations’ rights. She has taught at University of Washington, University of Arizona, University of Oregon, Lewis & Clark, and Seattle University, where she was a Professor of Law and a Faculty Fellow with the Center for Indian Law & Policy. Her courses include Property, Natural Resources, Environmental Law, Environmental Justice, Indian Law & Natural Resources, and Advanced Indian Law in Practice: Restoration of the Elwha River.

Catherine left academia for a period to work for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission as a Habitat Policy Analyst. She has also served as a consultant for various environmental and intertribal organizations, including Earthjustice, the National Tribal Toxics Council, and the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), as well as for several individual tribes. Catherine is a Member Scholar with the Center for Progressive Reform, a non-profit research and advocacy organization that seeks to inform public policy for a healthy environment and a just society. She is a co-author of the textbook ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: LAW, POLICY & REGULATION (3rd ed., 2020), and the author of numerous articles and book chapters, including Exposed: Asking the Wrong Question in Risk Regulation (Arizona State Law Journal, 2016); Fishable Waters (American Indian Law Journal, 2013); No Mud Pies: Risk Avoidance as Risk Regulation (Vermont Law Review, 2007); and Mercury, Risk, and Justice (Environmental Law Reporter, 2004). Catherine was a Ford Foundation Fellow at Harvard Law School, and earned her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

Reflections on Teaching at Seattle University in 2023-24

I’m thrilled to be part of a community that shares the conviction that law is a tool for social change. It will be a pleasure to rejoin SU’s talented and committed students, staff, and faculty to grapple with questions about how this tool might thoughtfully be wielded.

In my view, this is a crucial time for ensuring that environmental law and policy solutions are not only bold but just. I’m excited to work with the students at SU to ask how this can be done. SU stands apart because social justice is always a part of the conversation.

Publications

Textbook

[CO-AUTHOR] CLIFFORD RECHTSCHAFFEN, EILEEN GAUNA, AND CATHERINE A. O’NEILL, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: LAW, POLICY, AND REGULATION (2d ed., 2009); and CLIFFORD VILLA, NADIA AHMAD, REBECCA BRATSPIES, ROGER LIN, CLIFFORD RECHTSCHAFFEN, EILEEN GAUNA, AND CATHERINE A. O’NEILL, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: LAW, POLICY, AND REGULATION (3d ed., 2020)

Articles and Chapters

  • Exposed: Asking the Wrong Question in Risk Regulation, 48 ARIZONA STATE LAW JOURNAL 703 (2016)
  • Fishable Waters, 1 AMERICAN INDIAN LAW JOURNAL 181 (2013)
  • [Co-author] Anna Harding, Barbara Harper, Dave Stone, Catherine O’Neill, Patricia Berger, Stuart Harris, Jamie Donatuto, Conducting Research with Tribal Communities: Sovereignty, Ethics and Data-Sharing Issues, 120 ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 6 (Jan., 2012) [peer-reviewed]
  • [Co-author] Darren Ranco, Catherine O’Neill, Jamie Donatuto, and Barbara Harper, Environmental Justice, American Indians and the Cultural Dilemma: Developing Environmental Management for Tribal Health and Well-being, 4(4) ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE 221 (2011) [peer-reviewed]
  • [Co-author] Yee Huang, Catherine O’Neill, Robert L. Glicksman, William L. Andreen, Victor Flatt, William Funk, Robin Kundis Craig, Alice Kaswan and Robert R.M. Verchick, Climate change and the Puget Sound: Building the legal framework for adaptation, 2(3) CLIMATE LAW 1 (2011)
  • The Mathematics of Mercury in REFORMING REGULATORY IMPACT ANALYSIS 108 (WINSTON HARRINGTON ET AL., EDS.) (2009)
  • Environmental Justice in the Tribal Context: A Madness to EPA’s Method, 38 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 495 (2008)
  • Protecting the Tribal Harvest: The Right to Catch and Consume Fish, 22 JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW & LITIGATION 131 (2007)
  • No Mud Pies: Risk Avoidance as Risk Regulation, 31 VERMONT LAW REVIEW 273 (2007)
    • Selected through peer-review process as one of the ten best environmental and land use articles of the year and reprinted in 39 LAND USE & ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW 259 (2008)
  • The Perils of Risk Avoidance, 20 NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT 9 (Winter, 2006)
  • Mercury, Risk, and Justice, 34 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 11070 (2004)
  • Risk Avoidance, Cultural Discrimination, and Environmental Justice for Indigenous Peoples, 30 ECOLOGY LAW QUARTERLY 1 (2003)
  • [Co-author] Denis Binder, Colin Crawford, Eileen Gauna, M. Casey Jarman, Alice Kaswan, Bradford C. Mank, Catherine A. O’Neill, Clifford Rechtschaffen, and Robert R.M. Verchick, A Survey of Federal Agency Response to President Clinton’s Executive Order No. 12898 on Environmental Justice, 31 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 11133 (2001)
  • Restoration Affecting Native Resources: The Place of Native Ecological Science, Symposium on Environmental Restoration, 42 ARIZONA LAW REVIEW 343 (2000)
  • Variable Justice: Environmental Standards, Contaminated Fish, and "Acceptable” Risk to Native Peoples, 19 STANFORD ENVIRONMENTAL LAW JOURNAL 3 (2000)
  • Single-Sex Education After United States v. Virginia, 23 JOURNAL OF COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY LAW 489 (1997)
  • [Co-author] Catherine A. O’Neill and Cass R. Sunstein, Economics and the Environment: Trading Debt and Technology for Nature, 17 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL. LAW 93 (1992)
    • Selected through peer-review process as one of the twelve best environmental and land use articles of the year and reprinted in 24 LAND USE & ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW (1993)
  • Sexual Harassment Cases and the Law of Evidence: A Proposed Rule, 1989 UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LEGAL FORUM 21

Activity

Op-Ed Pieces

  • Co-author with Frank James, Op-Ed, Update fish-consumption rate, THE SEATTLE TIMES, May 19, 2014, at A9
  • Co-author with Amy Sinden, Op-Ed, The cost-benefit dodge, THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, May 12, 2009
  • Op-Ed, Tuna, with a side of mercury, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, Nov. 1, 2007, at B5
  • Op-Ed, Clear facts about Clear Skies, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, March 9, 2005, at B9
  • Op-Ed, Try Not to Breathe, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS, July 7, 2004

Blogs

Regular Contributor: CPR Blog (available at http://www.progressivereform.org/CPRBlog.cfm?fkScholar=38)

Sample posts:

  • “Health for Women, Health for All” (Jan. 24, 2017)
  • “Monetization, Myopia, and MATS” (March 26, 2015)
  • “Washington State’s Weakened Water Quality Standards will Keep Fish Off the Table, Undermine
  • Tribal Health” (March 4, 2014)
  • “(Puget) Sound Science” (Nov. 8, 2012)
  • “Three Chirps for Risk Reduction” (Jan. 24, 2012)

Guest Contributor: Marler Blog