Daniel Magraw

Daniel Magraw is a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and President Emeritus at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). He has extensive experience in international law, institutions, processes and policies, particularly relating to environmental protection and human rights, including having worked in government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), inter-governmental organizations, business, and academia.

Professor 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 continues to work on substantive matters at CIEL as President Emeritus. He represents India in an arbitration brought by Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty, was for many years a member of the U.S. government's Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee (TEPAC), chairs the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of International Law's Task Force on Magna Carta, serves as a consultant to the United Nations, and is on the Board of Directors of Lightbridge Corporation, a publicly traded company.

From 1992-2001, Professor Magraw was Director of the International Environmental Law Office at the U.S. EPA. Initially a political appointee, he became a career member of the Senior Executive Service. 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) and served as the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator of EPA's Office of International Activities (1/01-8/01).

Professor Magraw teaches international environmental law and policy at 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 has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley and Georgetown University Law Center.

Professor Magraw worked as an economist and business consultant in India as a 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 develop marketing-development strategies for 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.

Professor 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, international trade 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. He is the recipient of many awards, including the ABA's Award for Distinguished Achievement in Environmental Law and Policy, the District of Columbia Bar Association's Public Service Award for International Law, the United Nations Association National Capital Area's Louis Sohn Award for Human Rights, and the Elizabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law (Stockholm University and International Council of Environmental Law).

Mr. Magraw has a J.D. 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 law projects serving under-privileged and under-represented people and communities). He has a B.A. with high honors in Economics from Harvard University (1968), where he was student body president, a volunteer worker in a housing project, a varsity letter-winning swimmer, and on the stage crew of the Loeb Drama Center. He studied music in India (the veena) and at the University of Minnesota (music theory).