James Neil Barnes

I received my Juris Doctor degree cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in June 1970 and clerked for US District Judge John Pratt in Washington, DC for the next year. In 1971 I joined the legal team at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) in Washington, a new public-interest law firm that represented environmental organizations and Alaskan Inuit opposing construction of the Alyeska Pipeline across Alaska north to south. I worked on the depositions and briefs filed in District Court and the Court of Appeals with a small team of young lawyers. In 1974 the Supreme Court accepted the Court of Appeals decision blocking construction of the pipeline.

I served as a Public Defender in Washington, DC in 1972-73, and in the New Hebrides Islands (today Vanuatu) in 1974-75. From 1977-82 I returned to CLASP to work with the International Project, serving as Co-Director in 1981-82. While there I co-founded the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) in 1978, serving for many years as General Counsel and as Executive Director from 2005-14. With Elliot Porter providing the photos, I wrote Let’s Save Antarctica in 1983, a citizens’ handbook for Antarctica to be protected as a World Park. I directed ASOC campaigns for an ‘ecosystem-as-a-whole’ fisheries treaty from 1978-82; against the proposed Minerals Convention from 1982-89; and from 1989-98 for the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty, which bans minerals activities in perpetuity. In 1995 while working for Friends of the Earth I co-founded the CEE Bankwatch Network (BWN) in Krakow, Poland, serving as an advisor for the next ten years. I currently am a Member of its Review Committee.

After many years of research and writing, my book “Cherokee History and the Spirit Family” was published by the University of North Georgia Press in January 2024. In May 2025 my book was awarded second Grand Prize for Non-Fiction from the Next Generation Indie Foundation.

On July 9, 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal, on behalf of ASOC I accepted the Gulbekian Humanity Prize from Dr. Angela Merkel, honoring ASOC work over the past four decades.