Panel II - Protecting the Ocean For All

Steve Roady

Professor of the Practice / Senior Lecturing Fellow

Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment / Duke Law School

Steve Roady is a senior lecturing fellow at Duke Law School and a professor of the practice of marine science and conservation at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Prior to joining the Duke faculty in 2016, he devoted several decades to litigation and administrative advocacy invoking the environmental and public health protections contained in federal statutes first enacted between 1970 and 1990. Between 1998 and 2001, Roady started and led the Ocean Law Project, which established many precedents requiring the government to better protect the ocean ecosystem. During 2001 and 2002, Roady served as the first president of Oceana, an international, nonprofit, non-government organization dedicated to protecting life in the sea. Roady has litigated and provided counseling in federal court and agency proceedings on matters arising under many federal statutes, including the Endangered Species Act, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. His federal court cases expanded the duty of federal agencies to consider environmental impacts, and buttressed public access to information. They imposed duties on the federal government to manage fishing in a sustainable manner. They protected endangered species and saved mountain streams.

Roady has assisted a number of Pacific Small Island Developing States with efforts to protect against sea level rise and ocean acidification. He represented various environmental organizations in negotiations with the Council on Environmental Quality as it formulated a new national ocean policy in 2009. At present he is providing outside advice to the International Seabed Authority as the ISA formulates regulations that are required to preserve the marine environment in connection with deep seabed mining. Roady has been teaching a course on ocean and coastal law and policy at Duke Law School and at the Duke School of the Environment since 2003. He received a Professor of the Year Award from the School of the Environment in 2008. During 2007-2008, he was recognized as a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow by Harvard Law School. His recent writings focus on deep seabed mining questions, and on ocean stewardship duties under the Public Trust Doctrine.