Professor of Law
B.S., University of Kansas
J.D., University of Kansas School of Law
LL.M., Pace University School of Law
E-mail:
jrmay@widener.edu Phone: 302.477.2060
James R. May is a Professor of Law and co-director of the Environmental Law Center, co-director of the Masters of Marine Policy (MMP) program with the University of Delaware, and Adjunct Professor of Graduate Engineering at Widener University. He is the immediate past H. Albert Young Fellow in Constitutional Law. He teaches and publishes in Constitutional, Environmental, Federal Lands, Natural Resources, Hazardous Substances, Administrative, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Environmental, International Environmental, Environmental Justice, Hazardous Wastes and Substances, and Graduate Engineering Law. He has been an academic, a founder and a director of two leading regional environmental advocacy non-profit organizations, a founder and director of a joint program on marine policy, a federal litigator, and an environmental attorney. Prior to entering law he worked as engineer on top secret national defense projects for the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense.
Professor May is co-author of the forthcoming book, Environmental Rights and Constitutional Protections: Implications for Present and Future Generations (Cambridge) (with Erin Daly). The American Bar Association and the Environmental Law Institute recently published his book, Contemporary Principles in Constitutional Environmental Law (ABA, Envtl. L. Inst., 2011). He has published more than 50 book chapters and law review articles. He has litigated more than 200 public interest environmental claims pro bono in federal courts throughout the nation, in matters from local tribunals to the U.S. Supreme Court. He has authored or co-authored numerous amicus briefs. He has received numerous professional awards. He is a 2009 inductee of the American College of Environmental Lawyers.
Professor May is a past Council Member to the governing board of the ABA Section on Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER), and is founder and inaugural Chair of its Task Force on Constitutional Law. He has held numerous leadership positions with SEER, including as Chair to SEER’s Annual Conference on Environmental Law in 2009, and Co-Chair in 2007 and 2008. He is a member of the ABA Section on Science and the Law. He is a past member of the Committee on Environmental Law to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and a past Master to the Delaware Valley Environmental American Inn of Court.
Professor May is the founder, and immediate past executive director and president of the Mid-Atlantic Environmental Law Center, and co-founder and past co-director of the Eastern Environmental Law Center. He has served as the director of Widener Institute at the Macquarie University Environmental Law Centre in Sydney, Australia, Visiting Associate Director of the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law Center, Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, summer faculty at Vermont Law School, and Visiting Fellow at the Environmental Law Institute. He has taught International Environmental Law in Sydney (four times) and Nairobi, Kenya.
At the University of Kansas, he earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, where he won the Bowman Award. He also earned his J.D. from the University of Kansas, where he taught Appellate Advocacy and was a national champion in the National Environmental Moot Court Competition, and his LL.M. from Pace University School of Law, where he was the Feldshuh Environmental Fellow and graduated first in his class. He lives in Wilmington Delaware with his wife and two children, where he coaches and plays a variety of sports, including ice hockey and inner city baseball, and is an outdoor enthusiast.
Selected Recent Publications
Books
- CONTEMPORARY PRINCIPLES IN CONSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (James R. May ed., Envtl. L. Inst./ABA, forthcoming).
- & Wendy Carr, THROUGH THE AGENCY MAZE: A CITIZEN’S GUIDE TO FINDING INFORMATION IN THE MID-ATLANTIC (William Penn Foundation/Mid-Atlantic Env. L. Ctr. 2000).
Chapters
- The Future of Constitutional and Natural Resources Law, in NATURAL RESOURCES LAW AND POLICY 124 – 160 (S. Bates and L. MacDonnell, eds., American Bar Association).
- The Intersection of Constitutional Law and Environmental Litigation, in ENVIRONMENTAL LITIGATION: LAW AND STRATEGY 359 – 395 (Cary R. Perlman ed., ABA 2009).
- Et al., Constitutional Law: 2009 Annual Report, in ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY, AND RESOURCES LAW: THE YEAR IN REVIEW 2008 349 (ABA Section of Envt., Energy & Resources 2010, forthcoming, co-author).
- Constitutional Law: 2008 Annual Report, in ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY, AND RESOURCES LAW: THE YEAR IN REVIEW 2008 (ABA Section of Envt., Energy & Resources 2009).
- Constitutional Law: 2007 Annual Report, in ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY, AND RESOURCES LAW: THE YEAR IN REVIEW 2008 (ABA Sec. of Envt., Energy & Resources 2008).
- Et al., Constitutional Law: 2006 Annual Report, in ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY, AND RESOURCES LAW: THE YEAR IN REVIEW 2008 (ABA Section of Envt., Energy & Resources 2005, co-author).
- Discharges From Historic Mining Properties: Asserting and Defending Citizen Suits Under the Clean Water Act, 50 ROCKY MT. MIN. L. INST. 23 (2004).
- Pacific Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Haslip; Substantive Due Process Implications for Toxic Tort Practitioners Part II, 19 Prod. Safety & Liab. Rep. (BNA) 1293 (November 15, 1991); also in 6 Tox. L. Rep. (BNA) 912 (January 1, 1992).
- Pacific Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Haslip; Substantive Due Process Implications for Toxic Tort Practitioners Part I, 19 Prod. Safety & Liab. Rep. (BNA) 1263 (November 8, 1991); also in 6 Tox. L. Rep. (BNA) 882 (December 18, 1992).
Articles
- & Erin Daly, Vindicating Constitutionally Entrenched Environmental Rights Around the Globe, 11 Oregon Rev. Int’l L. __ (2010).
- Not at All: Sustainability and the U.S. Supreme Court, 9 Sustain. Dev. L. & Pol’y, __ (2009).
- U.S. Supreme Court Environmental Cases 2008-2009: A Year Like No Other, 40 Env’t Rep. (BNA), No. 36, at 2154 (Sept. 11, 2009).
- & Clary, The Role of Science and Engineering in Water Pollution Control During the Past 100 Years, 100 American Inst. Chem. Engr. (2008).
- Of Happy Incidents, Climate, Federalism, and Preemption, 17 TEMP. POL. & CIV. RTS. L. REV. 465 (2008).
- Climate Change, Constitutional Consignment, and the Political Question Doctrine, Symposium: Global Climate Change: Integrating Environmental Justice into Policy, Regulation, and Litigation, 85 DENVER U. L. REV. 919 (2008).
- & Robert L. Glicksman, A Jurisprudence of Idealogy, 24 Envtl. Forum 22 (2007)
- U.S. Supreme Court Decisions: Review for 2006-2007 and Outlook, 38 Env’t Rep. (BNA), No. 34, at 1851 (Aug. 24, 2007).
- The North American Symposium on the Judiciary and Environmental Law: Constituting Fundamental Environmental Rights Worldwide, 23 PACE ENVTL. L. REV. 113 (2005/2006).
- The Availability of State Environmental Citizen Suits, 18 NAT. RESOURCES & ENV’T 53 (2004), reprinted in ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 439 (ALI-ABA Course of Study, Feb. 16-18, 2005).
- The Rise and Repose of Assimilation-Based Water Quality, Part I: TMDL Litigation, 34 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. L. Inst.) 10247 (2004), reprinted in CLEAN WATER ACT: LAW AND REGULATION 255 (ALI-ABA Course of Study, Oct. 27-29, 2004), reprinted in 24 EPA Admin. L. Rep. 762 (2004).
- Now More Than Ever: Trends in Environmental Citizen Suits at 30, Environmental Citizen Suits at Thirtysomething: A Celebration & Summit Symposium, Part I, 10 WIDENER L. REV. 1 (2003), reprinted in ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 385 (ALI-ABA Course of Study, Feb. 16-18, 2005).