Areas of Interest
Environmental Law and Policy
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Inspiring change
April 22, 2022
On Earth Day, we highlight some of the work being done by Harvard Law students, scholars, clinics, and programs to address some our most pressing environmental issues.
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Figueres receives 2022 Great Negotiator award at HLS
April 21, 2022
As the former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres was in charge of the 2015 climate talks in Paris. In a conscious departure from earlier conferences, she declared that any agreement should be unanimous, rather than merely a consensus.
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Current electric vehicles subsidies fail to reduce overall emissions, says Harvard Law study
April 7, 2022
Subsidies offered by the federal government for the purchase of new electric vehicles (EVs) may actually increase total greenhouse gas emissions without similar aid for secondhand buyers, concludes a new study led by Ashley Nunes, Ph.D., a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program.
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Since 2018, Harvard Law students have been tracking environmental laws and regulations across administrations.
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Supreme Court preview: West Virginia v. EPA
February 28, 2022
Harvard Law expert Shaun Goho explains how a complicated Supreme Court case could have major implications for government agencies and the environment.
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Harvard Law Professor Christine Desan says the Biden administration is harnessing fiscal and monetary policy to bolster the economy, but should move faster to address climate change, crypto markets, public banking.
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Weighing President Biden’s first year
January 18, 2022
In this series, Harvard Law experts turn a critical eye to the Biden administration’s efforts on health care, the economy, criminal justice reform, and other areas important to Americans — and share their thoughts on its agenda for the future.
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Weighing President Biden’s first year: The environment
January 13, 2022
Harvard Law Professor Richard Lazarus says Biden has ‘quickly and effectively’ reversed many of former President Trump’s executive orders on the environment, but Congress ‘presents a major obstacle’ to the new administration.
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Waiving COVID vaccine patent rights? It’s complicated
December 27, 2021
Harvard Law Today recently spoke to Professors Terry Fisher and Ruth Okediji about COVID-19 vaccine challenges in the global south, waiving drug-maker patents, and what they propose to reform the system in time for the next pandemic.
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Electric slide
September 21, 2021
Helping key players across Massachusetts — including the City of Boston and environmental nonprofits — reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 is a focus for the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School.
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Each year, half of HLS’ first-year J.D. students and around a quarter of LL.M. students participate in at least one of HLS' 11 Student Practice Organizations, with some involved in multiple organizations at once.
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Fourteen selected as Wasserstein Public Interest Fellows
August 6, 2021
This academic year, 14 Wasserstein Public Interest Fellows have been named at Harvard Law School.
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Hannah Perls ’20 and Hana Veselka Vizcarra of the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program assess the new administration’s efforts to address climate change.
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A focus on the environment
April 22, 2021
In recognition of Earth Day, we highlight some recent work and perspectives of Harvard Law's students and scholars committed to environmental change.
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Students in the Harvard Law School Environmental & Energy Law Program switch from tracking environmental rollbacks to analyzing how to the Biden-Harris administration can implement its ambitious climate plan.
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Freeman, Lazarus discuss Biden administration’s reversal of Trump’s environmental legacy
April 22, 2021
At a recent event, Harvard Law School Jody Freeman and Richard Lazarus gave an account of the environmental policy swing underway in the Biden administration.
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COVID and the law: What have we learned?
March 17, 2021
The effect of COVID-19 on the law has been transformative and wide-ranging, but as a Harvard Law School panel pointed out on the one-year anniversary of campus shutdown, the changes haven’t all been for the worse.
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The shape of discrimination
March 10, 2021
Harvard Law alum Daniel Aaron ’20 thinks high obesity rates among people of color may be another legacy of ongoing racism in America.
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Kennedy, Minow, Sunstein found new American Journal of Law and Equality
February 23, 2021
Three Harvard Law School professors have teamed up with MIT Press to launch a new journal focused on issues of inequality.
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Since President Joe Biden took office in January, dozens of Harvard Law community members, including faculty and alumni, have been tapped to serve in high-profile positions in his administration
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Scientists and law professors urge Biden to pull unlawful Endangered Species Act rules
February 12, 2021
Group led by Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Program petitions the president to immediately rescind key policies that restrict the government’s consideration of harms from greenhouse gas emissions on protected animals.