The Story

Law Professor Awarded with Fulbright Distinguished Chair

Sep. 14, 2009 | By Danny Mosier, DSJ News Editor

Marshall-Wythe Foundation Professor of Law Linda Malone, a member of the William & Mary law faculty since 1988 as well as the founder and director of the Law School's Human Security Law Program, was awarded the Distinguished Fulbright Chair in International Environmental Law for 2009-2010 last month. According to the William and Mary press release, eight hundred faculty and education professionals get named as Fulbright Grant Scholars each year, but only about forty worldwide are awarded as Distinguished Chairs, making this appointment one of the most prestigious in the program. This award is Malone’s second Fulbright honor, her first being the Fulbright/OSCE Regional Research Award in 1998 for her work on women's and children's rights in Eastern Europe during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

“I have been incredibly fortunate to have my work recognized by the Fulbright awards in two separate areas,” said Malone. “My work for a number of years has been dedicated to demonstrating that they are not separate areas -- that a safe physical environment is a basic tenet of human rights.”

As the Distinguished Fulbright Chair, Malone will research and lecture at the Polytechnic Institute of Turin in Italy from March to June 2010. Her research will center on sustainable development, particularly aiding societies in reaching environmental sustainability, as well as studying protected areas management and international cooperation for nature and landscape conservation. As the Turin Chair, Malone will teach courses on International Environmental Policies and Legislation.

“The Fulbright Chair enables me to be in Europe at a critical time in the development and implementation of climate change regulation,” said Malone. “In December there will be a major conference in Copenhagen to negotiate an international climate change treaty, and for the first time in a long time the United States will be involved in the negotiations and outcome. I also work extensively in international human rights and criminal law, and look forward to pursuing many of my previously established European contacts in those areas.”

The Fulbright Honors are administered by the U.S. Department of State with the purpose of seeking to increase understanding between the people of the United States and those of other countries. The Fulbright Program currently operates in over 155 countries worldwide, which makes it the largest U.S. international exchange program which offers work and service opportunities for scholars, students, and professionals.
Malone, who is the author or co-author of twelve as well as having written numerous articles and book chapters, considers her recent research opportunities as the next step in her lucrative career.
“When I began teaching 20 years ago”, said Malone, “I wanted to be involved in international environmental law. At that time, which is hard to believe now, there was no recognition of that as a separate area of the law. I taught international environmental law when there was little recognition of that as being a field of law and many of my earliest students are now prominent leaders on that front, having been responsible for many of the current programs in controlling acid rain and greenhouse gases.”

Malone credits her receiving of the award in large part due her recent book Defending the Environment: Civil Society Strategies to Enforce International Environmental Law, which she co-wrote with William and Mary graduate Scott Pasternak, who is currently working with Earthjustice.

To find out more information about Linda Malone and her distinguished career, visit her William and Mary bio page at http://cardozo.wm.edu/scripting/for_external/faculty_bio.asp?eid=48.