Oliver Houck Chair in Environmental Law
Rebecca M. Bratspies is the inaugural Oliver Houck Chair in Environmental Law at Tulane Law School in New Orleans and serves on the board of directors at the Center for Progressive Reform.
Professor Bratspies is the inaugural Oliver Houck Professor of Environmental Law at Tulane University. A scholar of property law, environmental justice, and human rights, she has written scores of law review articles. Her most recent book, Teaching Environmental Law in Context, is expected to be published soon. Her co-authored textbook, Environmental Justice: Law Policy and Regulation, is now in its fourth edition. Her history book Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues and Heroes Behind New York Place Names won the New York Public Historians 2023 award for Excellence in Local History, the 2024 American Legacy Award for U.S. History, and the 2024 NYC Big Book Award for Local History.
Professor Bratspies is best known for The Environmental Justice Chronicles — her environmental justice comic books series made in collaboration with artist Charlie LaGreca-Velasco. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized this work with its 2023 Clean Air Act Award for Excellence in Education. The trilogy of books, Mayah’s Lot, Bina’s Plant, and Troop’s Run, have been used in classrooms across the country, featured in the Bobby Ireland Comic Museum, and adopted into Chicago’s public school curriculum. Her new graphic novella The Earth Defenders (a collaboration with the United Nations Environmental Programme) shines a spotlight on the dangers that environmental defenders face around the world.
Before joining Tulane, Professor Bratspies was a Professor at CUNY School of Law, where she was the founding director of the Center for Urban Environmental Reform. She served as an appointed member of New York City’s Environmental Justice Advisory Board and is a board member of the Environmental Law Collective. She served two terms on EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee and is a past president of the AALS Environmental Section. Bratspies also practiced environmental, commercial, and class action litigation with a private firm. Major pro bono experience included two successful class action suits challenging Pennsylvania’s implementation of welfare reform. In 1994-95, she was a Luce Scholar seconded to the Republic of China Environmental Protection Administration in Taipei, Taiwan. Before that, she served as a law clerk to the Hon. C. Arlen Beam on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
She holds a J.D. cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Biology from Wesleyan University.
