Elizabeth Trujillo
Mary Ann & Lawrence E. Faust Professor of Law
Founding Director, Initiative on Global Law and Policy for the Americas
University of Houston Honors College (BA)
University of Houston Law Center (JD)
Elizabeth Trujillo is the Mary Ann & Lawrence E. Faust Professor of Law and the Founding Director of the Initiative on Global Law and Policy for the Americas (GLPA), https://www.law.uh.edu/glpa/. She teaches Contracts, Trade and Sustainable Development, and NAFTA 2.0: North American Trade after USMCA. Her research specializes in international economic law, sustainable development, energy, contracts, and international law.
Immediately prior to UH, Professor Trujillo was a Professor of Law at Texas A&M University School of Law where she was also the co-convener for their new Global and Comparative Law Program and an Affiliated Faculty member with the Texas A&M University Energy Institute. She also was a Professor of Law at Suffolk University School of Law in Boston where she also served as co-director of their International Law Concentration, a Visiting Professor at Florida State University School of Law, and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University Law School. Prior to entering academia, she worked for the Houston office of the New York law firm LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRae (later known as Dewey and LeBoeuf) in the areas of corporate law, project finance and international business transactions, with an emphasis on energy and Latin America.
Her publications, which have appeared in top 50 law reviews, books, and peer-reviewed journals, examine the relationship between international trade and investment with domestic regulatory structures, specifically in the areas of energy and the environment, sustainable development, and international consumer protection law. Her recent research focuses more specifically on the trade implications of local decarbonization strategies in national efforts to mitigate for environmental challenges. Due to her expertise on USMCA/NAFTA and International Trade, she has been interviewed by media outlets including the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, CBC News, EcoAmericas, and Bloomberg BNA News. Her current book project examines the local and global dimensions of sustainability concerning the environment, and proposes a new legal framework for trade and sustainable development. Professor Trujillo has been invited to participate in various grant-funded projects investigating issues concerning environment and trade, including through the Rice University Baker Institute for Public Policy, Texas A&M University Energy Institute, and the University of Bologna.
As a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship, Professor Trujillo was Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (MPIL) in Heidelberg, Germany in 2015 and 2016.
In 2017, Professor Trujillo was elected to the American Law Institute and in 2018, to the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law where she also served on the Strategic Initiatives and Book Awards Committees. The Massachusetts Association of Hispanic Attorneys named Professor Trujillo “Latina Trailblazer in the Law” in 2012.
Selected Publications
Balancing Sustainability, the Right to Regulate, and the Need for Investor Protection: Lessons from the Trade Regime, 59 Boston College Law Review 2734 (2018)
Chapter on International Trade and Deep Decarbonization in the U.S. (part of U.S. Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project), LEGAL PATHWAYS TO DEEP DECARBONIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES, Michael B. Gerrard and John C. Dernbach, eds. (Environmental Law Institute publication) (2018)
Regulatory Cooperation in International Trade & its Transformative Effects on Executive Power, 25 Ind. J. of Global Legal Studies 365 (2018) (25th Anniversary Edition, by invitation only)
A Dialogical Approach to Trade and Environment, 16 JIEL 3 (Oxford University Press) (Fall 2013) (Peer Review)
COURSES:
Contracts
International Trade
NAFTA
Trade, Investment, and Development
Trends in International Law and Sustainable Development
