David Hunter

David Hunter is a Professor of Law and Director of the International Legal Studies Program at American University, Washington College of Law, the Director of the Washington Summer Session on Environmental Law.

Professor Hunter also currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, EarthRights International, and the Project on Government Oversight (chair).

Professor Hunter specializes in international environmental law, US environmental law, environmental torts, international law and Institutions, and sustainable finance.

Professor Hunter was the former Executive Director of the Center for International Environmental Law, a non-governmental organization dedicated to protecting the global environment through the use of international law.  Mr. Hunter was formerly an environmental consultant to the Czech and Slovak environmental ministries, an Environmental Associate at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Executive Director of WaterWatch of Oregon, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving western water laws.

Professor Hunter is author of many articles on international environmental law, and is co-author of the leading textbook in the field: International Environmental Law and Policy (Foundation Press, 3rd edition, 2006), as well as Climate Change and the Law, Lexis-Nexis Publishing, 2009. He is also the author of International Climate Negotiations: Opportunities and Challenges for the Obama Administration, 19 Duke Envtl. L. Pol’y F. 247 (2009) and Civil Society Networks and the Development of Environmental Standards at International Financial Institutions, 8 Chi. J. Int’l L. 437 (2008). Professor Hunter is co-author of the publications Narrowing the Accountability Gap: Toward a New Foreign Investor Accountability Mechanism, 20 Geo. J. Intl. Envtl. L. Rev.187 (Winter, 2008), Negligence in the Air: The Duty of Care in Climate Change Litigation, 155 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1741 (2007), The Biobio’s Legacy: Institutional Reforms and Unfulfilled Promises at the International Finance Corporation, in Demanding Accountability (Rowman & Littlefield 2003).

Professor Hunter has also authored Implications of Climate Change Litigation for International Environmental Law-Making, in Hari Osofsky & Wil Burns, EDS., Adjudicating Climate Control: Sub-National, National and Supra-National Approaches (Cambridge Press, 2007), The Future of US Climate Policy, in Canada’s Role In Addressing Climate Change(J. Brunnee, et al., eds., U. of Toronto Press 2007), and An Ecological Perspective on Property: A Call for Judicial Protection of the Public’s Interest in Environmentally Critical Resources, 12 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 311 (1988) (reprinted in 20 Land Use & Envtl. L. Rev. (1989)).

He is a 1983 graduate of the University of Michigan with majors in economics and political science, and a 1986 graduate of the Harvard Law School.