Rachel D. Godsil

Rachel D. Godsil teaches Equality Under American Law, Property, and Zoning and Land Use Policy at Seton Hall University School of Law. Professor Godsil has been involved in environmental justice law and policy, and has recently been working with attorneys representing the South Camden Citizens in Action. She is the outgoing chair of the American Association of Law Schools Poverty Law Section. Professor Godsil has written extensively on the convergence of race, poverty, and the environment. Her publications include: Reviewing the Cathedral from Behind the Color Line: Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Environmental Racism (work in progress) Expressivism, Empathy and Equality, 36 Mich. J. L. Ref. 247 (2003); Jobs, Trees, and Autonomy: The Convergence of the Environmental Justice Movement and Community Economic Development, co-author with James Freeman, 5 U. Maryland J. of Contemp. Legal Issues 25 (1993-94); The Question of Risk: Incorporating Community Perceptions into Environmental Risk Assessments, co-author with James Freeman, 21 Fordham Urban L.J. 547 (1994); and Note, Remedying Environmental Racism, 90 Mich. L. Rev. 394 (1991). Prior to joining the Seton Hall School of Law faculty in 2000, Professor Godsil was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. She was an Associate Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, focusing on environmental justice, an associate with Berle, Kass & Case and Arnold & Porter in New York City, and a law clerk the Honorable John M. Walker, Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School. At Michigan, Professor Godsil served as the Executive Article Editor of the Michigan Law Review, was awarded the Henry M. Bates Memorial Award, and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

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