David M. Driesen

David M. Driesen is a University Professor in the College of Law at Syracuse University, focusing on environmental law, law and economics, and constitutional law.

Professor Driesen engages in public service mostly focused on defending environmental law’s constitutionality and supporting efforts to address global climate disruption. He has written numerous amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases and has represented Senators Hillary Clinton and others in Clean Air Act litigation in the D.C. Circuit. He is a member scholar with the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR), and blogs often on climate disruption issues for CPR and for RegBlog. He has worked as a consultant for American rivers and other environmental groups on Clean Water Act issues and has testified before Congress on implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.

Professor Driesen was a Senior Project Attorney for The Natural Resources Defense Council, in its Air and Energy Program. Before that, he clerked for Justice Robert Utter of the Washington State Supreme Court and worked in the Special Litigation Division of the Washington State Attorney General’s Office.

Driesen has written three books: The Economic Dynamics of Law (Cambridge University Press), the textbook Environmental Law a Conceptual and Pragmatic Approach (Aspen Kluwer with Robert Adler and Kirsten Engel) and The Economic Dynamics of Environmental Law (MIT Press), which won the Lynton Keith Caldwell Award—a prize offered by The American Political Science Association annually for the best book published in science, technology and environmental studies. He has also published two edited volumes, Beyond Environmental Law: Policy Proposals for a Better Future (Cambridge University Press with Alyson Flournoy) and Economic Thought and U.S. Climate Change Policy (MIT Press). He has published numerous articles with leading journals, such as Cornell Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly, Harvard Environmental Law Review, and the Virginia Journal of International Law, and several book chapters.

Driesen holds a J.D. from the Yale Law School.