Carl Bruch

Senior Attorney and Co-Director of International Programs
202-939-3879
202-939-3868
bruch@eli.org

Expertise

• Armed Conflict and the Environment: armed conflict and the environment—international conflicts, internal conflicts, and post-conflict
• Climate Change: policy—laws and institutions for adaptation
• International: good governance—transparency, public participation, and accountability; international environmental law and institutions—compliance, development, implementation, and enforcement
• Law: compliance and enforcement
• Water: oceans and water quality and rights

Profile

Carl Bruch’s research focuses on making environmental law work. He has helped countries across Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia develop and implement laws, policies, and institutional frameworks to effectively manage water resources, biodiversity, forests, and other natural resources. He is an authority on the means to manage natural resources to support post-conflict peacebuilding, on environmental governance and institutions, and on ways to prevent, reduce, mitigate, and compensate for damage to the environment during armed conflict.

In addition to working at ELI, Bruch has been an attorney with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW). Since 2007, he has taught a course on international environmental policy at Johns Hopkins University.

Education

• J.D., Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College, 1996
• M.A. in physics, University of Texas at Austin, 1992
• B.S. in physics (additional majors in anthropology and mathematics), Michigan State University, 1989

Selected Publications

Strengthening Post-Conflict Peacebuilding through Natural Resource Management (co-coordinating a set of six edited volumes, as well as coordinating the drafting of a synthesis volume; Volume 1 is on High-Value Natural Resources; Volume 2 on Land; Volume 3 on Water; Volume 4 on Livelihoods; Volume 5 on Restoration, Recovery, and Remediation; and Volume 6 on Governance & Institutions (editor of Volume 6)) (in progress).

Carl Bruch et al., Constitutional Environmental Law: Giving Force to Fundamental Principles in Africa (2nd ed.) (Envtl. L. Inst., 2007), translated into Chinese and published in 7 Envtl. & Res. L. Rev. 281-330 (Law Press 2007).

Carl Bruch et al., Post-Conflict Peacebuilding and Natural Resources, Yearbook of International Environmental Law (2009) (forthcoming).

Carl Bruch, Adaptive Water Management: Strengthening Laws to Cope with Uncertainty, in A.K. Biswas, C. Tortajada, & R. Izquierdo (eds.), Water Management Beyond 2020 (Berlin: Springer 2009).

Sandra S. Nichols & Carl Bruch, New Frameworks for Managing Dynamic Coasts: Legal and Policy Tools for Adapting U.S. Coastal Zone Management to Climate Change, 1(1) Sea Grant Law & Policy Journal 19-42 (2008), edited and republished as Managing Dynamic Coasts: Adapting U.S. Coastal Zone Management to Climate Change, 30(6) National Wetlands Newsletter 1 (2008).

Carl Bruch et al., Legal Frameworks Governing Water in the Middle East and North Africa, 22(4) J. Int’l Water Resources Dev’t 587 (2007).

Carl Bruch, Is International Environmental Law Really Law?: An Analysis of Application in Domestic Courts, 22 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 401 (2006).

Carl Bruch ed., Manual on Compliance With and Enforcement of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (UNEP 2006).

Carl Bruch, Growing Up:International Environmental Law Enters Adolescence, Envtl. F., May/June 2006, at 28.

Carl Bruch et al. eds., Public Participation in the Governance of International Freshwater Resources (UNU Press 2005).

Carl Bruch ed., The New “Public”: The Globalization of Public Participation (Envtl. L. Inst. 2002).

Carl Bruch et al., Constitutional Environmental Law: Giving Force to Fundamental Principles in Africa, 26 Colum. J. Envtl. L. 131 (2001) (expanded and updated (2006)).

Carl Bruch, All’s Not Fair in (Civil) War: Criminal Liability for Environmental Damage From Internal Armed Conflicts, 25 Vt. L. Rev. 695 (2001).

Jay E. Austin & Carl Bruch eds., The Environmental Consequences of War: Legal, Economic, and Scientific Perspectives (Cambridge Univ. Press 2000).