David M. Driesen

David Driesen is a University Professor at Syracuse University, the 13th person in the university's history to hold that university-wide position. His research focuses primarily on the role of economic thought in environmental law and on constitutional law. Stanford University Press published his most recent book, THE SPECTER OF DICTATORSHIP: JUDICIAL ENABLING OF PRESIDENTIAL POWER in 2021. His first book, THE ECONOMIC DYNAMICS OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (MIT Press 2003), won the Lynton Keith Caldwell award for the best book of the year in science, technology, and environmental studies. Since then, he has published THE ECONOMIC DYNAMICS OF LAW (Cambridge University Press 2012); ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: A CONCEPTUAL AND PRAGMATIC APPROACH (Wolters/Kluwer 2016) ((3rd edition with Robert Adler and Kirsten Engel), and two edited volumes, BEYOND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (Cambridge University Press, 2010) (with Alyson Flournoy), and ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND U.S. CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY (MIT Press 2010. His articles have appeared in leading journals, such as Cornell Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Ecology Law Quarterly, Virginia Journal of International Law, and Harvard Environmental Law Review. He is a member of the editorial boards of Environmental Law (Oxford) and Carbon and Climate Law Review and a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform. He was the 2008 Vermont Law School Distinguished Summer Scholar in Environmental Law, a visiting Professor at the University of Michigan Law School in 2006, and a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School in 2019. Professor Driesen holds a J.D. from the Yale Law School and served as an attorney in the Natural Resources Defense Council's air and energy program prior to entering academia. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Driesen was a freelance trumpet performer and continues to perform today with the Excelsior Cornet Band and Syracuse University Brass Ensemble.