Edith Brown Weiss Appointed to the Inspection Panel
Contact: Eduardo G. Abbott (202) 458 5200
WASHINGTON, September 6, 2002—Ms. Edith Brown Weiss, a U.S. national, has been appointed as the new member of the World Bank's three-member Inspection Panel. Ms. Brown Weiss replaces Mr. Jim MacNeill who completed his service with the Panel on July 31.
Ms. Brown Weiss is an outstanding legal scholar who has taught and published widely on issues of international law and global policies, including environmental and compliance issues. She received a B.A. degree from Stanford University with Great Distinction. She earned an LL.B. (J.D.) from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley and received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Chicago-Kent College of Law. Ms. Brown Weiss is currently Francis Cabell Brown Professor of International law at Georgetown University Law Center where she has been on the faculty since 1978. Prior to that, Ms. Brown Weiss was on the faculty of Princeton University. She has won several prizes for her work, including the Elizabeth Haub prize from the Free University of Brussels and the IUCN for international environmental law. She is the author or co-author of several award winning books, including In Fairness to Future Generations (in English, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese), which won the American Society of International Law's Certificate of Merit for outstanding scholarship, and Engaging Countries: Strengthening National Compliance with International Environmental Accords and Regimes for the Ocean, Outerspace and Atmosphere, both of which won Harold and Margaret Sprout Awards from the International Studies Association. She is also the co- author of many other books, including International Environmental Law and Policy and Reconciling Environment and Trade. Her many scholarly articles include "Understanding Compliance with International Environmental Agreements: the Baker's Dozen Myths"; "The Rise or the Fall of International Law?" and "Environmentally Sustainable Competitiveness."
Ms. Brown Weiss has been very active in the field of international law. She served as President of the American Society of International Law and as Associate General Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she established the division of international law. She is a member of many editorial boards, including the American Journal of International Law, Global Governance, and the Journal of International Economic Law; and has been a board member or advisor for the Japanese Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, the Cousteau Society, the Center for International Environmental Law; and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, among others. Ms. Brown Weiss has been a Special Legal Advisor to the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation and chaired the Committee for Research in Global Environmental Change of the Social Science Research Council. She has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources, the Water Science and Technology Board, and the Committee on Sustainable Water Supplies in the Middle East. She has been elected to membership in the American Law Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law.
Given the requirements of the Inspection Panel's work, Ms. Brown Weiss, in addition to her solid knowledge of the issues, brings a demonstrated ability to exercise sound judgment and an unquestionably high degree of integrity. Ms. Brown Weiss' five-year appointment, which is initially on a part time basis, became effective on September 1, 2002.