Office Details
Administrative Assistant: Tiffany Ralph, 410.837.4561
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 1112
Education
Ph.D., University of Arizona, School of Geography and Development
M.Sc., University of Oxford, School of Geography and Development
J.D., University of California College of the Law, San Francisco
B.A., University of Michigan
Areas of Expertise
Environmental Law
Climate Change
Water Governance
Energy Regulation
Property
Biography
Sonya Ziaja is an assistant professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She teaches Environmental Law; Climate Adaptation, Law and Equity; Water Law; Energy Law; Administrative Law; and Property. In 2024, Ziaja was named the Pace Haub School of Law Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Arizona, M.Sc. in Water Science, Policy and Management from the University of Oxford, and J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
Ziaja’s research interests focus on the overlapping areas of environmental governance and law, technology and society: How can environmental law and institutions sustainably adjust to rapidly changing social-ecological conditions associated with climate change? And with what consequences for equity and democratic participation? Her approach to these questions draws on her interdisciplinary background in environmental geography, water governance, as well as her practical knowledge of energy regulation.
Ziaja’s works have appeared in the Michigan Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Arizona State Law Journal, Ecology Law Quarterly, and the Environmental Law Reporter, among other law reviews and peer reviewed journals. Her article, “How Algorithm Assisted Decision Making Is Influencing Environmental Law and Climate Adaptation” was chosen by peer review as among the top five leading environmental and natural resources law articles in 2022 and was selected to appear, condensed and reprinted, in the 2023 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review. Her work is influential, having been cited in multiple law reviews and by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Before coming to University of Baltimore, she worked on climate, energy, and water issues at the California Public Utilities Commission and was the research lead for the Water, Energy, Climate Nexus at the California Energy Commission. She is a coauthor of California's Fourth Climate Assessment.
She is a Research Affiliate with the CEU Democracy Institute in Environment and Democracy.
Sonya Ziaja, Of Climate Justice and Magical Realism, 124.8 Mich. L. Rev. 1325 (2026).
Sonya Ziaja, Secret Lives of Environmental Rights, 41.2 Pace Env’t L. Rev. 345 (2024) (invited symposium).
Sonya Ziaja, Amoral Water Markets, 111.6 Geo. L. J. 1335 (2023) (with Karrigan Bork).
Keith Hirokawa, Cinnamon Carlarne, Karrigan Bork, & Sonya Ziaja, Mapping Ecosystem Benefits Flows to Normalize Equity, 54.3 Ariz. State L. Rev. 819 (2023) (selected by Environmental Law Institute and Vanderbilt University as one of the top 20 environmental law articles of that year).
Sonya Ziaja, How Algorithm Assisted Decision Making Is Influencing Climate Adaptation and Environmental Law, 48.3 Ecology L. Quarterly 899 (2021) (selected by Environmental Law Institute and Vanderbilt University as one of the top 5 environmental law articles of that year).