Skip to content
Reading time: 2 minutes
Justice Antonio Benjamin of the National High Court of Brazil

Justice Antonio Herman Benjamin of the National High Court of Brazil, and a renowned leader in the global environmental law community, will be in Hawaiʻi as the international jurist-in-residence at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law from March 28 to April 2, 2016.

Justice Benjamin has a full schedule for his week in Hawaiʻi hosted by the Richardson law school, including a public address on Thursday, March 31, 11:45 a.m. at the law school on “How Judges Confront Global Environmental Law Challenges.”

He will also give lectures and hold informal meetings with law students, spend time with the Chief Justice and Justices of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court and the judges of Hawaiʻi’s new Environmental Court, and meet Governor David Ige and state legislators, and a cross-section of Hawaiʻi environmental lawyers. His visit is hosted by the Case, Lombardi and Pettit law firm, which sponsors the Jurist-in-Residence program.

Justice Benjamin is the chair of the World Commission on Environmental Law, which is one of the six global commissions of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. IUCN is a global consortium of nations, universities, institutes and agencies that are working to find pragmatic solutions for pressing global environmental and development challenges. The UH law school’s Environmental Law Program was recently admitted as a formal voting member of the IUCN.

Said Associate Dean Denise Antolini, “Justice Benjamin’s visit to Hawaiʻi helps us add a critical global dimension to our perspective on environmental law issues.

“It is a genuine honor and pleasure to host a person of Justice Benjamin’s stature in the field of law and within the global environmental community,” said School of Law Dean Avi Soifer. “Our law students and our community are most fortunate to be able to meet him one-on-one and to hear his views on vital environmental issues. He is also a global leader in the growing trend to launch environmental courts as a major step toward a healthy and sustainable future.”

Read the William S. Richardson School of Law news release for more on Justice Benjamin’s visit.

—By Beverly Creamer

Back To Top