James R. May Email and Phone Number

James R. May, Esq. is the Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law at Washburn University School of Law and Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at Widener University Delaware Law School, where he founded the Environmental Rights Institute and the Dignity Law Program. May was the Founding President and Senior Counsel of Dignity Rights International.As a public interest litigator May innovated and led litigation to implement the Clean Water Act, enforce environmental laws and address the climate crises. Currently he represents Haitians before the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights.May founded the Mid-Atlantic Environmental Law Center, and co-founded the Eastern Environmental Law Center. He has received numerous awards, including from the University of Kansas, Pace University Haub School of Law, Widener University, American Canoe Association, and the ABA. He is an inductee of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, Phi Kappa Phi (Board), and the American Bar Foundation. LawDragon and Martindale Hubbard have recognized him as one of the world’s most influential environmental lawyers.May serves as Special Advisor to the ABA Task Force on Environmental Justice. He is a founding member of the Dignity Rights Initiative of the ABA Center for Human Rights. He was instrumental in ABA Resolutions to advance environmental justice and to recognize human dignity as "foundational to the rule of law." May has authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited 21 books, including Environmental Human Rights and the Anthropocene (Cambridge 2023), Dignity Law Handbook (2021), Advanced Introduction to Dignity Law (Edward Elgar 2020), Encyclopedia of Human Rights and the Environment (Edward Elgar 2020), Environmental Rights: The Development of Standards (Cambridge 2019), Judicial Handbook on Environmental Constitutionalism (United Nations 3d. Ed. 2019), Judicial Handbook on Environmental Constitutionalism: Compendium of Cases (United Nations 2d ed. 2019), Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism (Cambridge 2018), The Future of Sustainable Energy, (Edward Elgar 2016), New Frontiers in Environmental Constitutionalism (United Nations 2016), Environmental Constitutionalism (Edward Elgar 2016), Global Environmental Constitutionalism (Cambridge 2015), and Principles of Constitutional Environmental Law (American Bar Assn 2011).May has published casebooks on Environmental Law, Administrative Law, First Amendment, and Dignity Law, and more than 100 book chapters and law review articles and more than 100 other published legal works.