David Sive is an attorney

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

, environmentalist

Environmentalist

An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...

, and professor of environmental law

Environmental law

Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...

, who has been recognized as a pioneer in the field of United States environmental law, and is credited with helping create the field of environmental law. He received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...

 in 1948 where he was recognized as a Harlan Fiske Stone

Harlan Fiske Stone

Harlan Fiske Stone was an American lawyer and jurist. A native of New Hampshire, he served as the dean of Columbia Law School, his alma mater, in the early 20th century. As a member of the Republican Party, he was appointed as the 52nd Attorney General of the United States before becoming an...

 scholar.

Biography

In the early 1960's he was involved in a landmark environmental case opposing construction of a power plant on Storm King Mountain located on the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

 in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 State, called Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission, 354 F.2d 608 (2d Cir. 1965) and 453 F.2d 464 (2d Cir. 1971). The Scenic Hudson case established some of the basic first principles of standing

Standing (law)

In law, standing or locus standi is the term for the ability of a party to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support that party's participation in the case...

 in United States environmental law and is credited with having helped inspire the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act

National Environmental Policy Act

The National Environmental Policy Act is a United States environmental law that established a U.S. national policy promoting the enhancement of the environment and also established the President's Council on Environmental Quality ....

 and the creation of environmental law as a field and career. (Card, Skip, Scenic Standing; The 40th Anniversary of Scenic Hudson and the Birth of Environmental Litigation, New York State Bar Association Journal, Sept. 2005). In the mid-1970s, Sive represented plaintiffs in an unsuccessful environmental lawsuit challenging the Navy's Trident Submarine. Concerned About Trident v. Schlesinger, 400 F.Supp. 454 (D.D.C. 1975).

Sive also was involved in the preservation of the "forever wild" clauses of the New York State Constitution preserving the Adirondack Park and Catskill mountains. Sive has been described as a "pioneer" and "elder statesman" of environmental law by the New York Times. (Reinhold, Robert, The Law; Coming of Age of the Environmental Lawyer, New York Times, April 29, 1988). Sive is a founding partner of the environmental law firm Sive, Paget & Riesel

Sive, Paget & Riesel

Sive, Paget & Riesel is a law firm located in New York City primarily focusing on environmental law. The firm is among the oldest environmental law firms in the United States, tracing its origins back over forty years....

, located in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

Further reading

• Ann E. Carlson, Standing for the Environment, 45 UCLA L. Rev. 931 (1998)
• Oliver A. Houck, More Unfinished Stories: Lucas, Atlanta Coalition, and Palila/Sweet Home, 75 U. Colo. L. Rev. 331, fn.1 (2004) ("In the late 1960s, Mr. Sive represented plaintiffs in the seminal administrative standing and environmental cases surrounding Storm King Mountain. See Oliver A. Houck, Unfinished Stories, 73 U. Colo. L. Rev. 867 (2002). Mr. Sive went on to become a leader of the environmental law movement, annual Chair of the annual ALI/ABA Conference on Environmental Law in Washington, D.C., and a perceptive analyst and scholar. Retired from practice, he currently teaches at Pace Law School.")
• William H. Rodgers, Jr., The Most Creative Moments in the History of Environmental Law: The Who’s, Washburn Law Journal
• http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/Interviews/sive_david_part1.html Interview with David Sive from the Rutgers Oral History Archive November 8th, 2007
• http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/Interviews/sive_david_part2.html Interview with David Sive from the Rutgers Oral History Archive November 27th, 2007
• http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/Interviews/sive_david_part3.html Interview with David Sive from the Rutgers Oral History Archive December 18th, 2007

External links

• David Sive Manuscript Collection, Pace Law School Library
• SCENIC HUDSON COLLECTION: RECORDS RELATING TO THE STORM KING CASE 1963-1981 In the Archives and Special Collections at Marist College
• Sive, Paget & Riesel, PC