main content Erica Lyman

Biography

Professor Erica Lyman boasts over fifteen years of experience in international environmental law, with a strong focus on wildlife protection issues. She is the Director of the Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment (the Global Law Alliance)—a collaboration launched in the fall of 2020 between the Center for Animal Law Studies and the Environmental Law Program at Lewis & Clark Law School. The Global Law Alliance is a champion for wild animals and wild spaces across the globe, working to protect animals and the environment through the development, implementation, and enforcement of international law. Law students (JD and LLM) actively participate in the work through two clinics within the Alliance.

Professor Lyman has a rich history of practicing and teaching international environmental law, with a focus on international wildlife issues. In 2005, she joined the International Environmental Law Project (IELP) at Lewis & Clark Law School as its first staff attorney. Professor Lyman has gained a reputation for identifying creative strategies that also promote the integrity of treaty regimes. Professor Lyman’s international wildlife law practice focuses on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Convention on Migratory Species, the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling, and other international institutions that impact wildlife conservation. In recent years, Professor Lyman has expanded her work to include a focus on implementation of international commitments, supporting the revision and development of national legislation and addressing enforcement challenges. In this capacity, Professor Lyman works directly with governments and other stakeholders to strengthen national frameworks for combating wildlife trafficking. Professor Lyman has worked in Malawi, Angola, Kenya, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana, Gambia, and Guinea.

Although a significant focus of Professor Lyman’s work is in the field of international wildlife law, she also works on broader issues, such as habitat conservation, climate change, human rights, and trade and the environment. Professor Lyman’s work on climate change included legal support to the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in the lead-up to the Paris Agreement.

Professor Lyman teaches two clinic courses. She teaches an International Animal and Environmental Law Clinic for JD students who are interested in developing the practical skills and substantive knowledge required to tackle contemporary wildlife and other international environmental challenges. Professor Lyman also teaches the International Wildlife Law Clinic for Animal Law LLM students who are interested in wildlife issues and desire to enhance their skill set in order to work in wildlife conservation and international animal protection after receiving their degrees.

In addition to her clinic courses, Professor Lyman teaches an innovative course in international wildlife law that brings the complex politics of international law-making to the classroom through in-class exercises that draw on the “hot” topics of international wildlife law, including trophy hunting, Japanese whaling, polar bear conservation in light of climate change, and other contemporary issues. The design of the class promotes creative problem-solving and complex critical thinking and digs into the underlying politics and policy choices reflected in international wildlife law.

Specialty Areas and Course Descriptions

• International Wildlife Law Course
• International Wildlife Law Clinic
• International Animal and Environmental Law Clinic
• Director, Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment

Academic Credentials

• BA, Davidson College, Phi Beta Delta (International Honor Society)
• JD, cum laude December 2005, Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College

Bibliography

Forthcoming

Wildlife Crime, Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Animal Law (forthcoming) (co-authored with Nick Fromherz).

Examining Ecocide as a Wildlife Crime, Handbook on Wildlife Crime (Routledge) (forthcoming) (co-authored with Nick Fromherz).

Published

The World Heritage Convention & Climate Change: A Remit to Act Broadly and a Call to Act Boldly in Research Handbook on Climate Change and Biodiversity Law (Edward Elger) (Phillipa McCormick & Richard Caddell, eds) (solicited book chapter) (co-authored with Noni Austin and Martin Wagner).

Global Analysis on Crimes that Affect the Environment –Part 1: The Landscape of Criminalization (United Nations publication, 2024) (co-authored with Tanya Wyatt).

It Takes Two: CITES, Illegal Wildlife Trade, and Importing Country Accountability, 47 William & Mary Journal of Environmental Law and Policy 707 (2023).

Commentary: Think Before You Act: Improving the Conservation Outcomes of CITES Listing Decisions, Frontiers (Apr. 25, 2022)(Co-authored): https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.889234/full?&utm_source=Email_to_authors_&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=T1_11.5e1_author&utm_campaign=Email_publication&field=&journalName=Frontiers_in_Ecology_and_Evolution&id=889234.

Orangutan Killing and Trade in Indonesia: Wildlife Crime, Enforcement Patterns and Deterrence (co-authored), 276 Biological Conservation, December 2022, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000632072200297X

International Environmental Law Committee Report, Environment, Energy, and Resource Law: Year in Review 2016 (2017) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

International Environmental Law (Year in Review) (Spring 2017) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

Rethinking International Environmental Linkages: A Functional Cohesion Agenda for Species Conservation in a Time of Climate Change, 27 Fordham Envtl. L. Rev. 1 (2015)

The Green Climate Fund: Achieving Complementarity and Coherence among the UNFCCC Financial Institutions, 13 Environmental Law and Policy (Kangwon University) 124 (2014).

International Environmental Law Committee Report, Environment, Energy, and Resource Law: Year in Review 2013 (2014) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

International Environmental Law (Year in Review) (Spring 2014) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

International Environmental Law Committee Report, Environment, Energy, and Resource Law: Year in Review 2012 (2013) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

International Environmental Law (Year in Review) (Spring 2013) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

International Environmental Law Committee Report, Environment, Energy, and Resource Law: Year in Review 2011 (2012) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

International Environmental Law (Year in Review) (Spring 2012) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

International Environmental Law (Year in Review), 45 Intl. Law. 409 (Spring 2011) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

International Environmental Law Committee Report, Environment, Energy, and Resource Law: Year in Review 2010 (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

International Environmental Law (Year in Review), 44 Intl. Law. 503 (Spring 2010) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

International Environmental Law (Year in Review), 43 Intl. Law. 837 (Summer 2009) (author of Biological Resources and Wildlife section).

Sharing the Himalayan Glaciers: The Role of Territorial Sovereignty, 19 Duke Journal of Comp. & Intl. Law 487 (Spring 2009).

The World Heritage Convention and Climate Change: The Case for a Climate-Change Mitigation Strategy Beyond the Kyoto Protocol, in Adjudicating Climate Change: State, National, and International Approaches (ed. William C.G. Burns & Hari M. Osofsky) (2009).

On Thin Ice: The Failure of the United States and the World Heritage Committee to Take Climate Change Mitigation Pursuant to the World Heritage Convention Seriously, 38 Envtl. Law. 139 (Spring 2008).

Practiced at the Art of Deception: The Failure of Columbia River Basin Salmon under the Endangered Species Act, 36 Envtl. Law 709 (Summer 2006) (co-authored with Michael C. Blumm and Joshua D. Smith).

Legal Opinion on SANPark’s Use of the Precautionary Principle, in Elephant Management in South Africa: The Need to Think Big (Care for the Wild, 2005) (co-authored with Chris Wold).

 

Presentations

International Law Clinic Conference, speaker, University of Maryland, Transnational and International Environmental Clinics: Non-litigation Advocacy (September 2025).

Animal Law Symposium, speaker, Northern Illinois University, Heeding the Call for Transformative Change in Biodiversity Law (March 2024).

World Oregon, invited speaker, Introduction to Environmental Law and Wildlife Crime Work at Lewis & Clark Law School, Visiting Delegation: Philippines (September 2023).

World Oregon, invited speaker, Introduction to Environmental Law and Wildlife Crime Work at Lewis & Clark Law School, Visiting Delegation: Madagascar and Comoros, (August 2023).

Society of Legal Scholars Annual Seminar, speaker, Rights of Nature and Wild Animals, Newcastle University, (June 2023).

Animal Law Conference, moderator, Animals Caught in Human Conflict (November 2022).

William & Mary Environmental Law Symposium, speaker, It Takes Two: CITES, Illegal Wildlife Trade and Importing Country Accountability (February 2023).

AALS, January 2022, Promoting Justice Through Animal Law Clinics, panelist

California Animal Law Symposium, Golden Gate University (virtual), April 2022, moderated a panel on combatting the illegal wildlife trade.

Co-hosted a workshop at Lewis & Clark exploring innovative approaches to wildlife protection, April 2022, in partnership with Northumbria University, U.K.

Animal Law Conference (virtual), October 2021, panelist for discussion on wildlife trade and zoonotic disease risks

Vermont Law School’s Annual Symposium (virtual), November 2021, presenter, wildlife and corporate accountability panel

Greater Zimbabwe University, November 2021, lecture on international wildlife law

Environmental, Energy, and Land Use Law Program speakers series, Florida State University, November 2021, lecture on reducing zoonotic disease risk in the wildlife trade.

Animal Law Conference, Animal Welfare & Supply Chains: Where Human Health and Animal Health Collide (October 2020).

4th Africa Animal Welfare Conference, Wildlife Trade and Zoonotic Disease Risk (September 2020).

CITES Guest Lecture, New York University (invited speaker in Global Environmental Governance course) (May 2017).

CITES Training, World Animal Protection (April 2017).

Hot Topics at CITES: Bioengineered Rhino Horn, Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, Panel Speaker (March 2016).

CITES Training, International Fund for Animal Welfare (May 2016).

Animal Law Review Symposium: Crossing Borders – Animals and Business, Lewis & Clark Law School (invited speaker – Bioengineered Wildlife) (March 2016).

Call of the Wild: Legal Responses to Wildlife Conservation in the 21st Century, Fordham Law School (invited speaker) (January 2015).

Environmental Clinics: A Global Perspective, Yerevan State University, Armenia (invited speaker) (2013).

The Ivory Trade and CITES, Kenya Wildlife Service/CEE-WEB Symposium, Nairobi, Kenya (2012).

Reflections on Law, Governance, and Science in the Himalayas, Toward a Sustainable 21st Century: Glacier Melt, Early Snowmelt, and Sea Level Rise, Presented by University of California – Irvine and the Newkirk Center for Science and Society (invited speaker) (2011).

The Effectiveness of Multilateral Environmental Regimes: Getting CITES “Back to Basics,” International Wildlife Law Conference, Granada, Spain (June 2010).

“Animal Agriculture and Climate Change,” Environmental Law Conference, Eugene, Oregon (2009) (presented on role of agricultural activities under the Clean Development Mechanism).

Listing Tuvalu as a World Heritage Site, Lewis and Clark, Faculty Colloquium (2009).

Using Morocco’s Customs Legislation to Enforce Wildlife Trade Laws, Capacity-Building Workshop for members of Moroccan customs team and members of the Environmental Ministry, Ifrane, Morocco (October 2009).

Getting to Know your Environmental Clinic, Environmental Law Conference, Eugene, Oregon (March 2008) (panelist with other clinicians).

At Odds?: Animal and Human Welfare Juxtaposed,” Environmental Law Conference, Eugene, Oregon (organizer and panelist; presented on the “sustainable use” concept and human/wildlife political conflict in international negotiations).

Sharing the Himalayan Glaciers: The Role of Territorial Sovereignty, Duke Journal of International and Comparative Law Symposium: Global Justice and Climate Change, Raleigh, North Carolina (February 2009).

Presented Scholarship in Progress, New York University Clinical Writers Workshop, New York, New York (October 2008).

Can the Wildlife Trade Bridge the Poverty Gap?: CITES, Livelihoods, and Sustainable Use, National Animal Law Conference: Building Bridges: Strengthening the Animal Advocacy Movement (September 2007).

Public Participation within the Pacific Salmon Commission, Executive Session of the Pacific Salmon Commission, Coeur D’Alene, Idaho (2007).

Invited Workshop Participant, Workshop on the Pacific Salmon Treaty, Wood Institute for the Environment at Stanford University (2007).

The International Regulation of Trade in Endangered Species: Will the Ivory Trade Save or Endanger the African Elephant?, Lewis & Clark College, Guest Lecturer in Environmental Law and Policy (2007).

Women in International Environmental Law, Oregon Episcopal School, Portland, Oregon (March 2007).

Practicing International Environmental Law, Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (March 2007).

Invited Conference Participant, Globalizing Clinical Legal Education for the Protection of the World’s Health and Environment, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland (2006).