Richard Parker

Professor Parker teaches and writes in the fields of administrative law and environmental law (both domestic and international). His research focuses on techniques for strengthening governance and public participation in a variety of legal and policy contexts, including ocean governance, climate strategy, domestic regulation, and foreign policy. In the international realm, his scholarship has focused on trade and environment issues: on the use (and abuse) of trade leverage in promoting effective ocean governance; on the application of trade rules to various climate change cap-and-trade schemes; and on options for using trade leverage and industry competition to strengthen the climate regime. His published scholarship in the realm of domestic environmental law and policy has centered on the use and misuse of cost-benefit analysis as a tool of regulatory evaluation, and on the elaboration of new options for deploying more expert and inclusive tools of regulatory analysis -- such as online expert collaboration -- in the rulemaking process. Professor Parker served as Assistant General Counsel in the Office of the United States Trade Representative and Special Counsel to the Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where his responsibilities included assisting the Deputy Administrator in oversight of the agency’s international programs and coordinating the agency’s trade and environment policy. He currently co-chairs the ABA Administrative Law Section’s Committee on E-Rulemaking. He founded and served for two years as Executive Director of the American Foreign Policy Project, an experimental, online collaboration of top foreign policy experts. He holds a B.A. in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and a D.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.