Dr. Robert J. Goldstein, S.J.D.

Dr. Goldstein is the director of the West Point Center for the Rule of Law at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, where he also serves as a professor of law in the Department of Law & Philosophy.

He is first holder of the Association of Graduate’s endowed Distinguished Chair in Constitutional and Military Law at USMA. Goldstein currently teaches environmental law and civil rights law and created the West Point Civil Rights Staff Ride, about which he wrote a book, “On the Battlefields of Justice,” to be published by West Point Press.

Goldstein previously was director of environmental programs at Pace Law School, where he taught courses in administrative law, property law, environmental law, and others. While there, he created initiatives using environmental law to protect human rights, including the Pace Virtual Environmental Law Library, Journal of the Pace Center for Environmental Legal Studies, Law School Brazil Program, and established a joint-degree program with Yale University. 

He was senior attorney and general counsel for Riverkeeper, Inc., where he led a team of investigators, policy analysts, and attorneys whose mission was safeguarding ecological integrity in the Hudson Valley. He managed Riverkeeper’s high-profile cases, including the Hudson River PCB Superfund site and the power plant intake cases that culminated in the case of Entergy v. Riverkeeper before the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Goldstein received the Environmental Quality Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Nicholas A. Robinson Award for Contributions to Environmental Law and was awarded the Superior Civilian Service Medal by USMA. 

He has published books, including notably “Green Wood in the Bundle of Sticks,” and edited, “Environmental Ethics and Law."