Profile
Professor Chavez received his B.S. in Accounting from Loyola Marymount University and his J.D. from Yale Law School. He teaches Civil Procedure and Environmental Law, and he has previously taught Contracts, Corporations, Election Law, and Legal Research and Writing.
Prior to teaching, Professor Chavez primarily litigated cases under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He received a Special Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Justice for his work in the Civil Rights Division's Voting Section.
Professor Chavez subsequently served as the director of voting rights litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. As a result of his work, the secretary of commerce appointed him to serve on an advisory committee to help reduce the minority undercount for the 2000 Census. He has also testified regarding voting rights or census issues before the U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee and the California Assembly, as well as before local governments, community groups, and professional organizations.
Professor Chavez is licensed as both an attorney and a certified public accountant in California. He left his position as the Director of Legal Research and Writing at the University of California at Davis to teach at Chase. He has written regarding climate change and climate engineering, the redistricting of election districts, and the decennial census.
Contact
- Office: NH 515
- Email: chaveza1@nku.edu
- Phone: 859.572.5355
- Fax: 859.572.5342
- Curriculum Vitae
Education
- BS, Loyola Marymount University
- JD, Yale Law School
Courses Taught
- Civil Procedure
- Environmental Law
- Climate Change and the Law
- Energy and the Environment: Renewables
- Environmental Aspects of Business Transactions
- Environmental Law Seminar
- Natural Resources Law
- Voting Rights and Election Law
Scholarship
Using Renewable Energy Policies to Develop Carbon Dioxide Removal, in CLIMATE GEOENGINEERING LAW AND GOVERNANCE (Wil Burns, David Dana, Simon Nicholson, eds.) (forthcoming 2021)
Lessons from Renewable Energy Diffusion for Carbon Dioxide Removal Development, 32 FORDHAM ENVTL. L. REV. 46 (2020) SSRN PDF
Using Renewable Portfolio Standards to Accelerate Development of Negative Emissions Technologies, 43 Wm. & Mary Envtl. L. & Pol'y Rev. 1 (2018) SSRN PDF
Using Legal Principles to Guide Geoengineering Deployment, 24 N.Y.U. Envtl. L.J. 59 (2016) SSRN PDF
Exclusive Rights to Saving the Planet: The Patenting of Geoengineering Inventions, 13 Nw. J. Tech & Intell. Prop. 1 (2015) SSRN PDF
A Napoleonic Approach to Climate Change: The Geoengineering Branch, 5 Wash. & Lee J. of Energy, Climate, and the En't. 93 (2014) SSRN PDF
The Red and Blue Golden State: Why California's Proposition 11 Will Not Produce More Competitive Elections, Vol. 14, No. 2 Chap. L. Rev. 311 (2011) SSRN PDF
Prop. 11 Won’t Solve California’s Problem of Partisanship, San Jose Mercury News, October 21, 2008
Census Bureau’s Latino Quandary, Los Angeles Times, July 20, 2003
Speaking Engagements and Recognitions
United States Voter Suppression in Context: Past and Current Efforts to Reduce VotingStrength, 6@6 Lecture Series, Newport, Kentucky (October 2020)
Presenter, “Lessons for CDR Development from Renewable Energy Diffusion,” Achieving Net Zero Conference, University of Oxford, United Kingdom (September 2019)
Using Laws to Encourage Carbon Utilization Research, 2019 Carbon Management Technology Conference, Houston, Texas (July 2019)
Incentivizing Carbon Utilization Research, 17th International Conference on Carbon Dioxide Utilization – ICCDU 2019, Aachen, Germany (June 2019)
Incentivizing Negative Emission Technologies (NETs), NKU Spotlight on Scholarship, Northern Kentucky University (October 2018)
Using Renewable Energy Policies to Accelerate Development of NETs, International Conference on Negative CO2 Emissions, Chalmers University, Gothenburg, Sweden (May 2018)
Using Renewable Portfolio Standards to Accelerate Development of Negative Emissions Technologies, 2017 Climate Engineering Conference, Berlin, Germany (October 2017)
The Interrelation between Human Rights and Geoengineering, 2017 Climate Engineering Conference, Berlin, Germany (October 2017)
The Politics and Governance of Negative Emissions Technologies: Between the Paris Agreement and the Anthropocene, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands (June 2017)
Risk, Innovative Technology, and Climate Change (the Law of Climate Engineering), Natural Resources Law Teachers Institute 2017, Banff, Canada (June 2017)
Presenter, “Law and Deploying Geoengineering,” Solar Radiation Management Conference, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK (March 2015)
Playing God - Reversing Extinction, Creating New Life, And Remaking The Planet: Should We Use Technology To Undo Our Environmental Damage?, 2014 Vermont Law School Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship (October 2014)
Legal Ethics in the World of Electronically Stored Information, 2014 Kentucky Environmental Law CLE Seminar - KBA Environment, Energy & Resources Law Section (April 2014)
The Threat of Invasive Species (CLE), Kentucky Bar Association, Environment, Energy & Resources Law Section, Frankfort, Kentucky (2013)
A Napoleonic Approach to Climate Change, Vermont Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship (2012)
Not Up to Standard? HB 167 and Kentucky's Reluctance to Adopt a Renewable Portfolio Standard (CLE), Kentucky Bar Association, Environment, Energy & Resources Law Section, Frankfort, Kentucky (2012)
Environmental Regulation of Geoengineering in the United States, Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville, Faculty Exchange Program (2012)
The Endangered Species Act and Invasive Species in Kentucky (CLE), Louisville Bar Association (2011)
The Future of the Voting Rights Act, University of California at Davis School of Law (2010)
Race, Ethnic and Gender Diversity in the Legal Profession, Salmon P. Chase College of Law (2010)
The Red and Blue Golden State: Why California's Proposition 11 Will Not Produce More Competitive Elections, University of Kentucky School of Law, Faculty Exchange Program (2010)