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Daniel Magraw

Adjunct Lecturer

About

Daniel Magraw is an expert in international law and policy, particularly relating to environmental protection. He has extensive experience in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), government, inter-governmental organizations, business and academia.

Mr. Magraw was President and Chief Executive Officer of CIEL from January 2002 to September 2010, during which time he also worked on substantive projects, including climate change, international financial institutions, toxic chemicals, oceans, democratizing international dispute settlement, trade and environment, and the law of foreign investment. He will continue to work on substantive matters at CIEL in his new capacity. He is a member of the USTR's Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee (TEPAC), chairs the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of International Law's Task Force on Magna Carta, frequently serves as a consultant to the United Nations, and is on the Board of Directors of Lightbridge Corporation, a publicly traded company. He has received many awards, including the ABA's Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy, District of Columbia Bar Association's Public Service Award for International Law, and United Nations Association National Capital Area's Louis B. Sohn Award for Human Rights (Dec. 2010).

From 1992-2001, Mr. Magraw was Director of the International Environmental Law Office at the U.S. EPA. Initially a political appointee, he became a career SES, with a Top Secret classification. He served on scores of United States delegations to international negotiations and other meetings. While on leave from his international environmental law position at EPA, he co-chaired a White House assessment of the regulation of genetically engineered organisms (5/00-1/01) as an Agency Representative at the Council on Environmental Quality, and he served as the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator of EPA's Office of International Activities (1/01-8/01). 

Mr. Magraw teaches at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). From 1983-92, he was Professor of Law at the University of Colorado, where he was the faculty initiator of the Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law & Policy. He was a Visiting Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 1989. He organized international conferences on international pollution, global change, and international watercourses at the Universities of Virginia and Colorado. He also taught at the University of California, Berkeley and Georgetown University Law Center.

Mr. Magraw worked as an economist and business consultant in India as an American Peace Corps Volunteer (1968-72), where he helped develop and manage the largest (over 600 employees) and most successful co-operative of its type in India. He stayed for a third year at the request of the Tamil Nadu state government to conduct a marketing survey of rural areas. He practiced international law, constitutional law, and bankruptcy law at Covington & Burling in Washington, DC from 1978-83, during which time he spent six months practicing poverty law at the Neighborhood Legal Services Program. He also worked on pro bono cases with the American Civil Liberties Union and League of Women Voters. 

Mr. Magraw has lectured extensively in the United States and abroad on a wide variety of international law topics, and he has written books and articles on many international law subjects, including international environmental law, women's human rights, the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the environment, sustainable development, accountability in international dispute settlement, and philosophy and environmental protection. He also has been active - often in a leadership capacity -- in a wide variety of professional organizations, including the ABA, American Law Institute, American Society of International Law, International Law Association, and Inter-American Bar Association. 

Mr. Magraw has a JD degree from the University of California, Berkeley (1976), where he was Editor-in-Chief of the California Law Review and a founder of the Berkeley Law Foundation (an NGO that funds projects helping under-privileged and under-represented people and communities). He has a BA with high honors in Economics from Harvard University (1968), where he was student body president, a volunteer working with youth in a housing project, a varsity swimmer, and on the stage crew of the Loeb Drama Center. He also studied music in India (the veena) and Minnesota (music theory).

Expertise


In the News

Earth Day at 50: A time to engage

Daniel Magraw wrote for National Council for Social Studies, 4/22