Steve Charnovitz (September 15, 1953 – March 23, 2025) was an American legal scholar, who taught at the

George Washington University Law School The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest law school in Washington, D. ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and was best known for his writings on the linkages between trade and environment and trade and labor rights. He was also known for his scholarship on the historical role of nongovernmental organizations in international governance.

Background

Charnovitz was a native of

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. He was an early advocate for improving bicycle transportation in the United States where he worked in the Office of Environmental Affairs of the U.S. Department of Transportation. He was an analyst in the

U.S. Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unem ...

from 1975 to 1986 on international labor issues. One accomplishment during that period was the negotiation of labor reforms in Haiti and El Salvador as part of the U.S. Caribbean Basin Initiative. During 1984–1985, he was an

American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political scientists in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, it publishes four ...

Congressional Fellow in the offices of Senator

Carl Levin Carl Milton Levin (June 28, 1934 – July 29, 2021) was an American attorney and politician who served as a List of United States senators from Michigan, United States senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party (U ...

and House Majority Leader Jim Wright. From 1987 to 1989, he was a legislative assistant to

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

Speaker Jim Wright, and served once again in 1989–1991 for Speaker Tom Foley. In 1991, Charnovitz became Policy Director of the newly established Competitiveness Policy Council. In 1994, he co-founded and directed the Global Environment and Trade Study (GETS) located at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. After several years in private practice at the law firm now known as Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, Charnovitz joined the faculty of the

in 2004. Charnovitz served on several editorial boards in scholarly journals including the ''American Journal of International Law'', the ''Journal of Environment & Development'', the ''Journal of International Economic Law'', and the ''World Trade Review''. He was a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

. From the late 1970s onward, he was a forceful advocate of free trade combined with pro-competitiveness policies by governments to assist workers who are hurt by economic change and

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

. Charnovitz was also a longtime proponent of effective intergovernmental policies to prevent climate change. He was also an early proponent of giving each student an individual computer in the classroom. He was a member of the American Law Institute. In 2012, he served as an advisor to the Harvard Business School's Project on U.S. Competitiveness. Charnovitz received a B.A. degree from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1975, an M.P.P. degree from

Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

in 1983, and a J.D. degree from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

in 1998. On March 23, 2025, he died in New York City at the age of 71.

Works

Charnovitz was the author of ''Trade Law and Global Governance'', which was launched in June 1992 at the

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) or Wilson Center is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topi ...

. He was also the author of over 215 articles in edited volumes and scholarly journals, and the co-editor of ''Law in Service of Human Dignity''. In 2009, he coauthored ''Global Warming and the World Trading System'', published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. (The coauthors are Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jisun Kim.) In the 1990s and 2000s, he had written extensively on the history of non-governmental organizations (

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

). In 1997, he proposed the thesis that the impact of non-governmental organization on international policymaking was cyclical rather than upwardly sloping. He was the author of ''The Path of World Trade Law in the 21st Century'' (World Scientific, 2014). He was known for his neologisms on international policy issues. For example, he coined the term "ecolonomy" to signify that Earth's ecology and economy were two sides of the same coin. He also coined the term "SCOO" as an acronym for the trade sanction in the World Trade Organization called "suspension of concessions or other obligations". Charnovitz wrote on numerous issues in international law and US foreign relations such as climate change, decarbonization, and international migration. He advocated experimentalism in republican government. Beginning in 1983, he advocated that the United States supplement its participation in the United Nations by intensifying US cooperation with other democracies.

References

External links

Faculty webpage at GWU Law

Personal homepage
– Profile and bibliography
NGO Accountability in Global Governance

Orcid
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charnovitz, Steve 1953 births 2025 deaths American legal scholars People from Savannah, Georgia Yale Law School alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni George Washington University Law School faculty International law scholars Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr people Yale College alumni