Steve Charnovitz (born 1953) is a scholar of public

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

, living in the United States. He teaches at the

George Washington University Law School The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest top law school in the national capital. GW Law offers the largest range of cou ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and is best known for his writings on the linkages between trade and environment and trade and labor rights. He is also known for his scholarship on the historical role of nongovernmental organizations in international governance.

Background

Charnovitz is a native of

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. He was an early advocate for improving bicycle transportation in the United States where he worked in the Office of Environmental Affairs of the U.S. Department of Transportation. He was an analyst in the

U.S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...

from 1975 to 1986 on international labor issues. One accomplishment during that period was the negotiation of labor reforms in Haiti and El Salvador as part of the U.S. Caribbean Basin Initiative. During 1984–1985, he was an

American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...

Congressional Fellow in the offices of Senator

Carl Levin Carl Milton Levin (June 28, 1934 – July 29, 2021) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the chair of the Senate Armed Services C ...

and House Majority Leader Jim Wright. From 1987 to 1989, he was a legislative assistant to

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

Jim Wright James Claude Wright Jr. (December 22, 1922 – May 6, 2015) was an American politician who served as the 48th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1989. He represented Texas's 12th congressional district as a ...

, and served once again in 1989–1991 for Speaker

Tom Foley Thomas Stephen Foley (March 6, 1929 – October 18, 2013) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 49th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1989 to 1995. A member of the Democratic Party, Foley represent ...

. In 1991, Charnovitz became Policy Director of the newly established

Competitiveness Policy Council The Competitiveness Policy Council was an independent federal advisory committee chartered in 1988 to advise the president and the Congress on more effective policies to promote U.S. competitiveness. The council had a unique quadrapartite membersh ...

. In 1994, he co-founded and directed the

Global Environment and Trade Study The Global Environment & Trade Study (GETS) was a non-profit research institute established in 1994 to study the complex linkages between international trade and environmental sustainability. GETS supported numerous research projects on the legal, ...

(GETS) located at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. After several years in private practice at the law firm now known as

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, also known as Hale & Dorr and WilmerHale, is an international law firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. It is co-headquartered in Washington, D.C. and Boston. It was formed in 2004 thr ...

, Charnovitz joined the faculty of the

in 2004. Charnovitz serves or has served on several editorial boards in scholarly journals including the ''American Journal of International Law'', the ''Journal of Environment & Development'', the ''Journal of International Economic Law'', and the ''World Trade Review''. He is a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

. From the late 1970s onward, he has been a forceful advocate of free trade combined with pro-competitiveness policies by governments to assist workers who are hurt by economic change and

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

. Charnovitz has also been a longtime proponent of effective intergovernmental policies to prevent climate change. He was also an early proponent of giving each student an individual computer in the classroom. He is a member of the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. ...

. In 2012, he has served as an advisor to the Harvard Business School's Project on U.S. Competitiveness. He received a B.A. degree from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1975, an M.P.P. degree from the

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

in 1983, and a J.D. degree from the

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

in 1998.

Works

Charnovitz is the author of ''Trade Law and Global Governance'', which was launched in June 1992 at the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washi ...

. He is also the author of over 215 articles in edited volumes and scholarly journals, and the co-editor of ''Law in Service of Human Dignity''. In 2009, he coauthored ''Global Warming and the World Trading System'', published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. (The coauthors are Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jisun Kim.) In the 1990s and 2000s, he has written extensively on the history of non-governmental organizations (

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

). In 1997, he proposed the thesis that the impact of non-governmental organization on international policymaking was cylical rather than upwardly sloping. He is the author of ''The Path of World Trade Law in the 21st Century'' (World Scientific, 2014). He is known for his neologisms on international policy issues. For example, he coined the term "ecolonomy" to signify that Earth's ecology and economy were two sides of the same coin. He also coined the term "SCOO" as an acronym for the trade sanction in the World Trade Organization called "suspension of concessions or other obligations". He writes on numerous issues in international law and US foreign relations such as climate change,

decarbonization Climate change mitigation is action to limit climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases or removing those gases from the atmosphere. The recent rise in global average temperature is mostly caused by emissions from fossil fuels b ...

, and international migration. He has advocated experimentalism in republican government. Since 1983, he has advocated that the United States supplement its participation in the United Nations by intensifying US cooperation with other democracies.

References

External links

Faculty webpage at GWU Law

Personal homepage
– Profile and bibliography
NGO Accountability in Global Governance

Orcid
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charnovitz, Steve American legal scholars Living people People from Savannah, Georgia 1953 births Yale Law School alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni George Washington University Law School faculty International law scholars Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr people Yale College alumni