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Environmental Law Virtual Guest Speakers
Sponsored by Mercer Law School
Spring 2021


Professor Sharmila Murthy
Suffolk University Law School

The Constitutionality of State and Local ‘Norm Sustaining’ Actions on Global Climate Change: The Foreign Affairs Federalism Grey Zone


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Sharmila L. Murthy is an Associate Professor and Director of Faculty Scholarship and Research at Suffolk University Law School. She teaches and writes on issues of property law, environmental law, international environmental law, poverty, and human rights. She is widely recognized for her scholarship on access to drinking water and sanitation, and, on state and local action on global climate change. A list of her scholarly publications is available.

In 2021, Professor Murthy was named the Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar, a national award bestowed by the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. In 2020, Professor Murthy received two teaching awards from Suffolk University: the university-wide Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching, as well as the Innovative Teaching Award from the Center for Teaching and Scholarly Excellence. In 2017, she received the Woman of the Year: Faculty Division from the Suffolk Law Women of Color Law Student Association.

Professor Murthy has held several leadership roles with the American Association of Law Schools. In 2019, she served as Chair of the Environmental Law Section, which received the AALS Section of the Year Award under her direction. In 2018, she was also Chair of the Human Rights Section.

Previously, Professor Murthy was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she served as the lead investigator for water for the Project on Innovation and Access to Technologies for Sustainable Development through the Sustainability Science Program. She also co-founded the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation Program as a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy Schools Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. In addition, Professor Murthy taught for many years in the Water Diplomacy Workshop. In 2014, Professor Murthy was selected as a finalist for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Professor Murthy began her legal career as a public interest poverty lawyer. She was awarded a Skadden Fellowship to work with the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, where she created the Refugee and Immigrant Partnership Program for Legal Empowerment and litigated predatory lending and foreclosure rescue scam cases. For these efforts, she received the New Advocate of the Year award from the Tennessee Alliance of Legal Services. Professor Murthy also litigated complex and class action cases as an associate with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, where she represented members of the public in mortgage fraud and natural resource cases.

Professor Murthy received her JD from Harvard Law School, her MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and her BS in Natural Resources from Cornell University. She clerked for the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She was also a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in India, where she studied the rural microfinance program of the Self-Employed Women's Association.

Professor Murthy also volunteers with several civic and legal organizations. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Conservation Law Foundation, on the Board of HumanRight2Water,  and on the Board of Justice at Work. She is the Faculty Advisor for the Suffolk Law Chapter of the American Constitution Society (ACS) and previously served as President of the Boston Lawyer ACS Chapter. In addition, she previously served as the President of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and the founding President of the Nashville Lawyer ACS Chapter.
Lecture:  The lecture is available here. 

The List: Professor Murthy join the discussion list for the Guest Speaker Program from February 22 - 26.  You can access the list here.  

Links of Interest:

  • The Constitutionality of State and Local 'Norm Sustaining' Actions on Global Climate Change: The Foreign Affairs Federalism Grey Zone, 5 U. Penn. J. L. & Pub. Aff. 35 (2020) 
  • California's Cap-and-Trade Agreement with Quebec: Surviving Constitutional Scrutiny, Harvard Env. & Energy Law Program Blog (November 4, 2019) 
  • Order on Treaty Clause & Compact Clause:  United States v. California et al., 444 F.Supp.3d 1181 (E.D. Cal. 2020) 
  • Order on Foreign Affairs Preemption: United States v. California et al., No. 2:19-cv-02142, 2020 WL 4043034 (E.D. Cal. July 17, 2020)

Tune In:  Schedule of Speakers for Fall 2021 


Complaint in U.S. v. California
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