Environmental Protection and the Rule of Law in China

Professor Wang will discuss some of the most difficult environmental challenges China is facing.

China is facing some of the most difficult environmental challenges the world has ever seen. Prof. Wang will discuss some of the key responses in policy and law, and their prospects for success.  Regulatory mechanisms on the table include top-down command-and-control measures, bureaucratic targets, market measures, informational approaches, differentiated regulation across regions, and participatory mechanisms.   The amount of policymaking and rulemaking in recent years has been impressive, but will these measures work in practice?

Alex Wang joins the UCLA Law faculty as Assistant Professor of Law.  His primary research and teaching interests are in environmental law, Chinese law, comparative law, and torts.  He has been a visiting assistant professor at UC Berkeley School of Law.  

Prior to 2011, Wang was a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) based in Beijing and the founding director of NRDC’s China Environmental Law & Governance Project for nearly six years. In this capacity, he worked with China’s government agencies, legal community, and environmental groups to improve environmental rule of law and strengthen the role of the public in environmental protection.  He helped to establish NRDC’s Beijing office in 2006. He was a Fulbright Fellow to China from 2004-05. Prior to that, Mr. Wang was an attorney at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York City, where he worked on mergers & acquisitions, securities matters, and pro bono Endangered Species Act litigation. 

Wang holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law, and earned his B.S. in Biology with distinction from Duke University.  He was a fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations  (2008-10), and is a member of the Advisory Board to the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations.  He is a regular speaker on issues related to China and environmental protection.