Laura Cahier Awarded 2021 Grodsky Prize
The 2021 Jamie Grodsky Prize for Environmental Law Scholarship was presented to Laura Cahier, LLM ’21. The annual prize commemorates the life of Professor Jamie A. Grodsky, who served with great distinction in GW Law’s Environmental and Energy Law Program, and recognizes one exceptional paper by a GW Law student in the environmental law field. Papers are reviewed and judged by a panel of GW Law professors.
Ms. Cahier’s paper, “Environmental Justice in the United Nations Human Rights System: Challenges and Opportunities for the Protection of Indigenous Women against Environmental Violence,” argues for advancing legal standards relating to environmental justice within the current U.N. human rights system, despite the absence of a specific right to live free from environmental violence.
“I am very honored to receive the Jamie Grodsky prize this year,” Ms. Cahier said during the virtual award ceremony on April 9, 2021.
“Considering the challenging times that we are trying to navigate, this award gives me so much hope for the advancement of environmental justice moving forward, and the recognition of the interconnections between environmental law, human rights law, and the many forms of marginalization,” Ms. Cahier said. “I am really looking forward to continuing talking, exchanging and working with other students and faculty at GW Law. Learning from and with the GW community has been an incredibly stimulating and inspiring journey.”
Ms. Cahier is also pursuing a PhD in International Law at the University of Aix-Marseille and Georgetown University.
Aaron Aber Awarded 2020 Grodsky Prize
Aaron Aber, JD ’20, was presented with the 2020 Grodsky Prize for his paper, “We Could Stop the Fire: Re-Thinking U.S. Wildfire Management and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act,” during a virtual award ceremony in April.
Mr. Aber’s paper proposes revisions to the Healthy Forests Restoration Act that would make adaptive management the central component of federal forest management policy and imagines reintroducing judicial review to the forest management decision-making process.
When notified of the award, Mr. Aber expressed his gratitude. “Many of you have served as mentors to me, and Professor Glicksman in particular was instrumental in guiding me in this paper. I also owe much to the energy and environmental law curriculum you have all built,” Mr. Aber said. “Now, as a first-year associate at an environmental law firm, and in my pro bono work on environmental justice, I am fortunate to be applying what I learned in the classroom.”
Mr. Aber serves as a first-year associate at Sive, Paget & Riesel.