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Recent Print Edition:
Articles
Articles
Volume 110, Issue 5
Climate Liberalism and Decarbonization
Jonathan Adler
Existing climate policy goals require dramatic and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions. Achieving such reductions within the desired time frame is a tremendous challenge, particularly through conventional regulatory approaches. . . .
Floods, Hurricanes, Droughts, and a Free Market Economy: The Troubling Contradictions of State ESG Regulations
Lisa M. Fairfax
This Essay argues that state laws aimed at preventing consideration of environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) issues, so-called anti-ESG regulations, are deeply problematic not only because they are riddled with troubling contradictions, but also because they are harmful to both economic and business concerns. First, state anti-ESG regulations reflect states’ vigorous efforts to deny the financial repercussions of weather-related events at the very same time that states are experiencing devastating financial fallout from floods, hurricanes, droughts, and other weather-related events. . . .
Clean Energy Infrastructure and Private Property: Lessons from the Midwest
Shannon Roesler
The transition to a clean energy economy is underway. But the amount of climate mitigation that it produces will depend on the speed of the transition. . . .
The Moral Boundary of the Firm
Michael P. Vandenbergh, Jane Miller, Margaret Blair & Jonathan M. Gilligan
Scholars have wrestled with the legal boundary of the firm for generations. The legal boundary limits the extent to which a firm can be held liable for the torts, contractual, and regulatory obligations of other corporations. . . .
“Not Just Another Utility”: The Tennessee Valley Authority and Public Power in the Energy Transition
Shelley Welton, Levi Phillips & Nikki Luke
Support for public ownership of utilities as a means of decarbonizing energy systems is rising. Yet good models for how to institutionally structure publicly owned utilities to accomplish this mission are scarce. . . .
Throwing Cold Water on Climate Reparations
Richard A. Epstein
In this Essay, I dispute the increasingly common claim that the pollution and other excesses from the developed nations of the Industrial West have, given their capitalist economies, forced global warming on the rest of the world, for which reparations are not only appropriate but also a moral imperative. But the counterarguments are decisive against these bold claims. . . .
Mandatory Public Reason-Giving in Corporate Governance
Sarah Haan
Since the late 1970s, corporate governance law has incorporated a growing number of mandates that require corporate boards to explain to their shareholders the reasons behind their decision-making. These mandates do more than merely require boards to disclose certain decisions. . . .
Using the Transmission Grid to Make “Second Best” Decarbonization Better
Jim Rossi
Instead of a “first best” decarbonization approach such as a national carbon tax, U.S. efforts to decarbonize the electric power sector draw heavily on the decentralized, often fragmented tools of state utility regulation. These “second best” decarbonization approaches can create many benefits, but they also present several challenges for energy markets. . . .
Climate Redress Revisited: Loss and Damage, Compensation, and Reparations
Carlton Waterhouse
Extreme events related to climate change continue to grow in frequency and consequences. Often, the nations most harmed are those least responsible for climate impacts. . . .
Climate Change and Corporate Law in the United States: Not “Woke” but Eyes Open
Cynthia Williams
This Essay discusses the evidence that climate change and nature loss create financially material risks for corporations that must be carefully considered by officers and directors pursuant to their fiduciary duties of loyalty and care. This analysis concludes that under the current state of fiduciary duty law and the known financial risks presented by climate change and nature loss, officers and directors of corporations may breach their fiduciary duties by failing to implement and monitor a robust system to identify and manage each type of industry-specific climate-related and nature-related risk. . . .
Notes
Student Notes
Volume 110, Issue 5
Insurer Subrogation Claims: The Next Frontier for Climate Litigation
Erin E. Frith
As climate change increases the frequency and destructiveness of extreme-weather events, first-party insurers’ costs have skyrocketed from the resulting policy claims. Insurers and experts have recognized these risks since the early 1990s, but the industry has been slow to meaningfully respond. While an extensive body of insurance–climate literature exists, comparatively little has been written about one of insurers’ most important risk-management tools: subrogation. . . .
Recent Online Edition:
Recent Online Edition:
Taxonomizing Synthetic Data for Law
Ignacio Cofone, Katherine J. Strandburg & Nicholas Tilmes
110 Iowa L. Rev. Online 217 (2025)
Synthetic data is increasingly important in data usage and AI design, creating novel legal and policy dilemmas. All too often, discussions of synthetic data treat it as entirely distinct from “real,” collected data, overlooking the risks posed by different kinds and uses of synthetic data. . . .
Chevron Stare Decisis in a Post-Loper Bright World
Jonathan Remy Nash
110 Iowa L. Rev. Online 180 (2025)
In its June 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court jettisoned the longstanding Chevron doctrine, which had directed courts to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes. The Loper Bright Court attempted to minimize the substantial effect this change would have on administrative law and governance by declaring that “[t]he holdings” of cases that relied on the Chevron test to conclude “that specific agency actions are lawful . . . are still subject to statutory stare decisis despite our change in interpretive methodology.” . . .
“Especially Against the Government”
Daniel Butler Friedman
110 Iowa L. Rev. Online 202 (2025)
David Gray argues that we should scrap the requirement that the Fourth Amendment’s restrictions on searches and seizures apply only to the government (the “state agency requirement”). Instead, the Amendment’s protections should also be understood to regulate the large technology companies whose actions pose an equal or greater threat to citizens’ privacy. . . .
The State Agency Requirement, the Fourth Amendment, and American Racism: A Response to David Gray
Zamir Ben-Dan
110 Iowa L. Rev. Online 167 (2025)
Professor David Gray’s Article, The Fourth Amendment State Agency Requirement: Some Doubts, convincingly argues that the Fourth Amendment was not intended to be limited to government actors. He shows that the Supreme Court’s decision to impose a state action requirement is intertwined with America’s history and legacy of racism. . . .