The Challenges of Constitutional Law in the United States for Climate Lawmaking
In the first event in the Cambridge Seminar Series on Law and the Climate Crisis, Professor Richard Lazarus will discuss the links between U.S. constitutional law and climate change. Come to Hughes Hall to hear Professor Lazarus speak at 5pm on 4 November, the eve of the Presidential election, and stay for free drinks and networking afterwards.
Seminar synopsis:
It is a portentous time for climate lawmaking in the United States. The U.S. Congress is broken and unable to pass needed climate legislation. And a Supreme Court increasingly dominated by constitutional alarmists seems ready to strike down on constitutional grounds essential federal agency climate lawmaking efforts absent the very clear congressional authorisation that a paralysed Congress displays no ability to provide. In the past thirty months, the Court has decided three major rulings cutting back on federal agency authority, expressing skepticism of the Environmental Protection Agency in particular. Nor could this have happened at a worse time. For climate change, the price of such lawmaking delays is potentially catastrophic because the longer it takes to reduce increasing concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases, the exponentially harder it will be to do so. For that same reason, the results of the November Presidential elections are critically important for the climate issue.
About the speaker:
Richard Lazarus is the Charles Stebbins Fairchild Professor of Law at Harvard University, where he teaches environmental law, natural resources law, Supreme Court advocacy, and torts. He is a Visiting Beaufort Fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge, this Michaelmas Term.
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