Richard L. Revesz (born May 9, 1958) is an American lawyer and academic. He is the director of the
American Law Institute
The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs ...
and the Lawrence King Professor of Law at the
New York University School of Law
New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in Ne ...
. He served as the Dean of the New York University School of Law from 2002 to 2013. He is one of the nation's leading experts on
environmental law
Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the managem ...
,
regulatory law
Regulatory law refers to secondary legislation, including regulations, promulgated by an executive branch agency under a delegation from a legislature. It contrasts with statutory law promulgated by the legislative branch, and common law or case la ...
, and policy. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be administrator of the
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA ) is a Division within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which in turn, is within the Executive Office of the President. OIRA oversees the implementation of government-wide policie ...
, a regulatory division within the
Office of Management and Budget
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...
, on December 21, 2022.
Early life and education
Born in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...
, Richard Revesz graduated
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...
with a B.S.E. in
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...
in 1979 after completing a 140-page long senior thesis titled "Energy or Environment? The Tradeoff between Automobile Emissions and Fuel Economy." He then received an M.S. in civil engineering from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...
. He continued his studies at
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
, where he was editor-in-chief of ''
Yale Law Journal
The ''Yale Law Journal'' (YLJ), known also as the ''Yale Law Review'', is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students ...
'', and received a
J.D.
JD or jd may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''JD'' (film), a 2016 Bollywood film
* J.D. (''Scrubs''), nickname of Dr. John Dorian, fictional protagonist of the comedy-drama ''Scrubs''
* JD Fenix, a character from the ''Gears of War'' vi ...
in 1983. Upon graduation, he
clerked first for chief judge
Wilfred Feinberg
Wilfred Feinberg (June 22, 1920 – July 31, 2014) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and previously was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Souther ...
of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate j ...
and then clerked for
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...
Justice
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African- ...
, where he met his wife,
Vicki Been["Vicki L. Been Wed to Richard Revesz"](_blank)
''The New York Times'' 11/6/1989. who was also clerking at the Supreme Court, for Justice
Harry Blackmun
Harry Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908 – March 4, 1999) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 to 1994. Appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon, Blac ...
.
Career
Early career
Revesz began his academic career in 1985, joining the faculty of
NYU Law School
New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...
as an assistant professor. By 1990, he was a full professor of law, teaching
environmental
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
and
administrative law
Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as " regulations"), ...
. In 2001, he was named Lawrence King professor of law and, a year later, he succeeded
John Sexton
John Edward Sexton (born September 29, 1942) is an American lawyer, academic, and author. He is the Benjamin F. Butler Professor of Law at New York University where he teaches at the law school and NYU's undergraduate colleges. Sexton served as t ...
as dean. He stepped down as dean after 11 years in May 2013. Revesz also has been a
visiting professor
In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...
at Princeton's
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...
,
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
,
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...
, and the
Graduate Institute of International Studies
Graduate may refer to:
Education
* The subject of a graduation, i.e. someone awarded an academic degree
** Alumnus, a former student who has either attended or graduated from an institution
* High school graduate, someone who has completed high ...
in Geneva, Switzerland.
NYU School of Law Dean
Revesz served as dean at
NYU Law School
New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...
between 2002 and 2013. Under his tenure, NYU raised over $500 million and attracted 46 new faculty members, including fellow Argentine-American academic
Samuel Issacharoff
Samuel Issacharoff (born 1954) is an American law professor, whose scholarly work focuses on constitutional law, voting rights and civil procedure.
Career
Issacharoff graduated from Binghamton University in 1975 and Yale Law School in 1983. He w ...
.
While dean, Revesz presided over various free-speech controversies: His actions included criticizing but not disciplining a student who asked Justice
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectu ...
about his private sex life
and defending the right of Singaporean jurist
Thio Li-ann
Thio Li-ann (born 10 March 1968) is a Singaporean law professor at the National University of Singapore. She was educated at the University of Oxford, Harvard Law School and the University of Cambridge. In January 2007, she was appointed a N ...
to express controversial views about criminalizing consensual sexual acts between men.
American Law Institute Director
In 2014, Revesz was appointed to serve as the Director of the
American Law Institute
The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs ...
.
He oversees the institute's publication of
Restatements of the Law
In American jurisprudence, the ''Restatements of the Law'' are a set of treatises on legal subjects that seek to inform judges and lawyers about general principles of common law. There are now four series of ''Restatements'', all published by the ...
, Principles of the Law,
model acts
A model act, also called a model law or a piece of model legislation, is a suggested example for a law, drafted centrally to be disseminated and suggested for enactment in multiple independent legislatures. The motivation classically has been the ...
, and other proposals for law reform.
Institute for Policy Integrity Director
In 2008, Revesz and Michael Livermore co-founded the
Institute for Policy Integrity
The Institute for Policy Integrity (“Policy Integrity”) is a non-partisan think tank housed within the New York University School of Law. Policy Integrity is dedicated to improving government decisionmaking, and its primary area of focus is c ...
, a NYU Law-affiliated
think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...
and advocacy organization dedicated to improving the quality of governmental decision-making. Revesz directs the institute, which contributes original research in the fields of
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analy ...
,
administrative law
Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as " regulations"), ...
, and
public policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public ...
, and advocates for reform before courts, legislatures, and executive agencies. The institute’s work focuses primarily on energy and
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologica ...
issues,
consumer protection, and
public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
.
Scholarship
Revesz has published numerous books and articles in major law reviews and journals, focusing on
federalism
Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments (provincial, state, cantonal, territorial, or other sub-unit governments) in a single po ...
and
environmental regulation
Environmental law is a collective term encompassing aspects of the law that provide protection to the environment. A related but distinct set of regulatory regimes, now strongly influenced by environmental legal principles, focus on the manage ...
, the design of liability rules for
environmental protection
Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair da ...
and the role of cost-benefit analysis in shaping administrative and environmental regulation. His most recent book, ''Reviving Rationality: Saving Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Sake of the Environment and Our Health'', which he co-authored with Livermore, argues that the Trump administration has destabilized the bipartisan consensus that federal agencies must base their decisions on evidence, expertise, and analysis, and explores how future administrations can restore cost-benefit analysis.
He has served as a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...
, a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...
, and a member of the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board, among other organizations. In 1994 and 2007, he received the
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
award for best article or book on
administrative law
Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as " regulations"), ...
and regulatory practice.
Biden administration
On September 2, 2022, President
Joe Biden nominated Revesz to be administrator of the
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA ) is a Division within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which in turn, is within the Executive Office of the President. OIRA oversees the implementation of government-wide policie ...
, a regulatory division within the
Office of Management and Budget
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...
. He was confirmed in a voice vote on December 21, 2022.
[https://twitter.com/SenatePPG/status/1605676765195690005?cxt=HHwWqoCz2degwcgsAAAA]
Personal life
Richard Revesz lives with his wife,
Vicki Been, and their two children in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
.
[
]
Select bibliography
*''Reviving Rationality: Saving Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Sake of the Environment and Our Health'' with Michael Livermore. (2020).
*''Retaking Rationality: How Cost-Benefit Analysis Can Better Protect the Environment and Our Health'' with Michael Livermore. (2008).
*''Environmental Law and Policy''. (2008).
*''Grandfathering and Environmental Regulation: The Law and Economics of New Source Review'' with Jonathan Nash. 101 ''Northwestern University Law Review'' 1677 (2007).
*''Centralized Oversight of the Regulatory State,'' with Nicholas Bagley. 106 ''Columbia Law Review'' 1260 (2006).
*''Anti-Regulation Under the Guise of Rational Regulation: The Bush Administration's Approaches to Valuing Human Lives in Environmental Cost-Benefit Analyses,'' with Laura Lowenstein. 34 ''Environmental Law Reporter'' 10,954 (2004).
*''Foundations of Environmental Law and Policy''. 2nd Ed.(2000).
*''Federalism and Interstate Environmental Externalities'', 144 U. Pa. L. Rev. 2341 (1996) cited by the Supreme Court in ''EPA v. EME Homer City Generation
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
'', 572 U. S. ____ (2014).
See also
*
References
External links
NYU School of Law Faculty Page
Institute for Policy Integrity Home Page
Environmental Law and Policy - Foundation Press
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Revesz, Richard
1958 births
American lawyers
Argentine emigrants to the United States
Deans of New York University School of Law
Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
Deans of law schools in the United States
Living people
People from Buenos Aires
Place of birth missing (living people)
Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni
Yale Law School alumni