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John H. Knox

John H. Knox

Henry C. Lauerman Professor of International Law

John Knox is an internationally recognized expert on human rights law and international environmental law. From 2012 to 2015, he served as the first United Nations Independent Expert, and from 2015 to 2018, as its first Special Rapporteur, on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. In that role, he submitted a series of reports to the UN Human Rights Council on the application of human rights law to environmental issues, including climate change and the conservation of biological diversity. In 2018, he concluded his mandate by presenting Framework Principles on Human Rights and … Read more »

John Knox is an internationally recognized expert on human rights law and international environmental law. From 2012 to 2015, he served as the first United Nations Independent Expert, and from 2015 to 2018, as its first Special Rapporteur, on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. In that role, he submitted a series of reports to the UN Human Rights Council on the application of human rights law to environmental issues, including climate change and the conservation of biological diversity. In 2018, he concluded his mandate by presenting Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment to the United Nations, and by calling upon the UN General Assembly to recognize the human right to a healthy and sustainable environment.

His recent scholarship has focused on issues arising at the intersection of human rights and environmental protection. In 2018, he published a co-edited volume of essays on the human right to a healthy environment, and he is currently writing a book on the evolution of environmental rights in international law. In 2003, he was awarded the Francis Deák Prize, established by the American Society of International Law to honor a younger author who has made a "meritorious contribution to international legal scholarship." For four years, until 2005, he chaired a national advisory committee to EPA on the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the first regional environmental organization in North America, and from 2008 to 2012, he was of counsel to the Center for International Environmental Law. He is currently on the board of the Universal Rights Group, a human rights institution in Geneva, and of Wake Forest University's Center for Energy, Environment and Sustainability.

After graduating from Stanford Law School in 1987 and clerking for Judge Joseph T. Sneed of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, John served as an attorney-adviser at the Department of State from 1988 to 1994. He spent four years in private practice in Austin, Texas and taught at Penn State for eight years before joining Wake Forest in 2006. He is married to Julie Winterich, a professor of sociology at Guilford College, and they have three daughters.


Education

  • JD, Stanford Law School, 1987
  • BA in Economics and English, magna cum laude, Rice University, 1984

Courses

LAW 111 Property
LAW 501 International Law
LAW 592 International Human Rights
LAW 656 International Environmental Law

Publications

Books

  • The Evolution of Environmental Rights: Applying Human Rights to Environmental Protection (Cambridge University Press).
  • Reclaiming Global Environmental Leadership: Why the United States Should Ratify Ten Pending Environmental Treaties (Center for Progressive Reform 2012).
  • Greening NAFTA: The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (Stanford University Press 2003).

Book Chapters

  • Human Rights, in OXFORD HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, Lavanya Rajamani and Jacqueline Peel eds. (2021).
  • The Paris Agreement as a Human Rights Treaty, in HUMAN RIGHTS AND 21ST CENTURY CHALLENGES (2020).
  • The United Nations Mandate on Human Rights and the Environment, in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT (2019).
  • Human Rights Principles and Climate Change, in Oxford Handbook of International Climate Change Law (Cinnamon Carlarne et al., eds. 2016).
  • Environmental Disasters and Human Rights, in The Role of International Environmental Law in Reducing Disaster Risk (Jacqueline Peel & David Fisher eds. 2016).
  • The Paris Agreement as a Human Rights Treaty, in Human Rights in the 21st Century (Dominic Roser 2018).
  • International Environmental Law in North America, in International Environmental Law: The Practitioner's Guide to the Laws of the Planet (Grosko & Martella eds. 2014).
  • Climate Change as a Threat to Human Rights, in Oxford Handbook on Climate Change Law.
  • International Environmental Agreements in North America, in .
  • North American Free Trade Agreement, in Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability (2012).
  • The Ruggie Rules: Applying Human Rights Law to Corporations, in The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Radu Mares 2011).
  • Diagonal Environmental Rights, in Universal Human Rights and Extraterritorial Obligations (Sigrud Skogly and Mark Gibney 2010).
  • The Flawed Trail Smelter Procedure, in Transboundary Harms in International Law: Lessons from the Trail Smelter Arbitration (2006).
  • The International Law of Biodiversity, in Biodiversity: Addressing a Global Issue Locally (2005).

Articles

  • Dismantling the Fortress: Reforming International Conservation, Harvard Environmental Law Review (2025) forthcoming.
  • Environmental Justice as Environmental Human Rights, 55 157 (2024)., 55 VANDERBILT JOURNAL OF TRANSNATIONAL LAW 127 (2024).
  • Introduction to Symposium on the Human Right to a Healthy Environment, 117 AJIL UNBOUND 162 (2023).
  • A Law Professor in Full, tribute to David Markell, 36 JOURNAL OF LAND USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 213 (2021).
  • Introduction to Symposium on Climate Litigation in the Global South, 114 AJIL UNBOUND 35 (2020).
  • Constructing the Human Right to a Healthy Environment, 16 ANNUAL REVIEW OF LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 79 (2020).
  • The Global Pact for the Environment: At the Crossroads of Human Rights and the Environment, 28 REVIEW OF EUROPEAN, COMPARATIVE AND INT'L ENVIRONMENTAL LAW 40 (2019).
  • Bringing Human Rights to Bear on Climate Change, 93 CLIMATE LAW 165 (2019).
  • The Past, Present, and Future of Human Rights and the Environment, 53 WAKE FOREST LAW REVIEW 649 (2018).
  • The United States, Environmental Agreements, and the Political Question Doctrine, 40 North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation 933 (2015).
  • Human Rights, Environmental Protection, and the Sustainable Development Goals, 24 Washington International Law Journal 517 (2015).
  • Climate Ethics and Human Rights, 5 Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 22 (2014).
  • Review of Burns H. Weston & David Bollier, Green Governance: Ecological Survival, Human Rights, and the Law of the Commons, 108 American Journal of International Law 131 (2014).
  • Fixing the CEC Submissions Procedure,.
  • Evaluating Citizen Petition Procedures: Lessons from an Analysis of the NAFTA Environmental Commission, 47 Texas International Law Journal 505 (2012).
  • The Human Rights Council Endorses "Guiding Principles" for Corporations, 15 ASIL Insights 21 (2011).
  • NAFTA Environmental Institutions, Trends/ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources (2011).
  • The Unpredictable Presumption Against Extraterritoriality, 40 Southwestern Law Review 635 (2011).
  • A Presumption Against Extrajurisdictionality, 104 American Journal of International Law 351 (2010).
  • Neglected Lessons of the NAFTA Environmental Regime, 45 Wake Forest Law Review 391 (2010).
  • Climate Change and Human Rights Law, 50 Virginia Journal of International Law 163 (2009).
  • Linking Human Rights and Climate Change at the United Nations, 33 Harvard Environmental Law Review 477 (2009).
  • The Boundary Waters Treaty: Still Ahead of Its Time, 55 Wayne Law Review (2009).
  • Horizontal Human Rights Law, 102 American Journal of International Law 1 (2008).
  • The Boundary Waters Treaty: Ahead of Its Time, and Ours, 54 Wayne Law Review 1591 (2008).
  • Review of Gary Hufbauer & Jeffrey Schott, NAFTA Revisited, Global Law Books (2007).
  • Natural Resources Defense Council v. EPA, 101 American Journal of International Law (2007).
  • The 2005 Activity of the NAFTA Tribunals, 100 American Journal of International Law 429 (2006).
  • The Judicial Resolution of Conflicts Between Trade and the Environment, 28 Harvard Environmental Law Review 1 (2004).
  • The International Legal Framework for Addressing Climate Change, 12 Penn State Environmental Law Review 135 (2004).
  • Separated at Birth: The North American Agreements on Labor and the Environment, 26 Loyola International and Comparative Law Review 359 (2004).
  • The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation and Transboundary Pollution, 34 Environmental Law Reporter 10142 (2004).
  • Assessing the Candidates for a Global Treaty on Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment, 12 NYU Environmental Law Journal 153 (2003).
  • The Myth and Reality of Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment, 96 American Journal of International Law 291 (2002).
  • Federal, State, and Provincial Interplay Regarding Cross-Border Environmental Pollution, 27 Canada-United States Law Journal 199 (2001).
  • A New Approach to Compliance with International Environmental Law: the Submissions Procedure of the NAFTA Environmental Commission, 28 Ecology Law Quarterly 1 (2001).
  • U.S.-Mexico Border Issues, 46 Texas Practice: Environmental Law 127 (1997).
  • The Case of the Missing Paradigm. Review of Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, 32 Texas International Law Journal 355 (1997).

Other

  • OPINION: To conserve nature, protect human rights, Thomson Reuters Foundation News (June 30, 2021).
  • Launch of Report entitled #TheTimeIsNow: The Case for Universal Recognition of the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment (February 23, 2021).
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur: Children's Rights and the Environment, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/37/58 (January 24, 2018).
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur: Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/37/59 (January 24, 2018).
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur - Mission to Madagascar, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/34/49/Add.1 (April 26, 2017).
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment: Biodiversity and Human Rights, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/34/49 (January 19, 2017).
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Climate Change, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/31/52 (February 1, 2016).
  • The Human Right to a Healthy Environment.
  • Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Methods of Implementation, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/31/15 (December 28, 2015).
  • Report of the Independent Expert on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Mission to France, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/28/61/Add.1 (March 6, 2015).
  • Report of the Independent Expert on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Compilation of Good Practices, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/28/61 (February 3, 2015).
  • Report of the Independent Expert on the Issue of Human Rights Obligations Relating to the Enjoyment of a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment: Mission to Costa Rica, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/25/53/Add.1 (March 21, 2014).
  • Mapping Report on Human Rights and the Environment, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/25/53 (December 30, 2013).
  • Preliminary Report of the Independent Expert on Human Rights and the Environment, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/22/43 (December 24, 2012).
  • Citizen Suits in International Environmental Law: The North American Experience, in Making Law Work: Environmental Compliance and Sustainable Development (January 2002).

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John H. Knox
Contact Information
 336.758.7439

Worrell 3132
Expertise
  • Climate Change
  • Environmental Law & Justice
  • Human Rights
  • International Law
  • Property
  • Sustainability
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