Knox Honored for “Visionary” Work Establishing Human Right to a Healthy Environment

Faculty Affiliate John Knox, Henry C. Lauerman Professor of International Law at Wake Forest University’s School of Law, and his colleague Dr. David R. Boyd, Associate Professor of Law, Policy and Sustainability, at the University of British Columbia, were honored last week for their work in establishing a globally recognized right to a healthy environment as a matter of international law.

John Knox and David Boyd are visionary leaders who laid the legal and moral groundwork for one of the most consequential developments in international environmental law: global recognition of the human right to a healthy environment.

– Horace E. Anderson, Jr.,
Dean of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and President of the Haub Award Jury

Knox and Boyd, who served as the United Nations first and second Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, worked for years to clarify and articulate states’ obligations and ultimately to catalyze recognition of those obligations and the underlying human rights.

The pair were awarded the prestigious Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy at a ceremony in New York City. Pace University Trustee and Award Jury Member Liliane Haub presented the award following remarks from Professors Katrina Fischer Kuh and Camila Bustos. The evening concluded with a panel discussion, “Advancing the Right to a Healthy Environment,” featuring Knox, Boyd, and Ambassador Maritza Chan Valverde, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations, moderated by Professor Smita Narula, Haub Distinguished Professor of International Law and Co-Director of the Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies at Pace Haub Law.

Read more about the award and see a video of the evening’s programming from Pace University.