Vanderbilt University Law School

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Michael P. Vandenbergh

Professor of Law .Carlton Tarkington Chair of Teaching Excellence .Co-director, Regulatory Program .Director, Climate Change Research Network

Voice: (615) 322-6763
Fax: (615) 322-6631
Email: michael.vandenbergh@vanderbilt.edu
Office: Room 283
View curriculum vitae (.pdf)

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Links

• SSRN Page
• Regulatory Program
• Climate Change Research Network
• Environmental Law
• The Campaign to End American Idle - Vanderbilt Lawyer feature article

Research Interest(s)

Environmental law, the relationship between formal legal regulation and informal social regulation, private governance, climate change, presidential control of agency decision making

Education

J.D. University of Virginia
B.A. University of North Carolina

Biography

Michael Vandenbergh is a leading scholar in environmental law whose research explores the relationship between formal legal regulation and informal social regulation of individual and corporate environmental behavior. His work with Vanderbilt’s Climate Change Research Network involves interdisciplinary teams that focus on the reduction of carbon emissions from the individual and household sector. His corporate work explores the influence of social norms on firm behavior and the ways in which private contracting can enhance or undermine public governance. Before joining Vanderbilt’s law faculty, Professor Vandenbergh was a partner at Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C., where he established himself as one of the nation’s foremost environmental lawyers. He served as Chief of Staff of the Environmental Protection Agency from 1993-95. He began his career as a law clerk to Judge Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1987-88. In addition to directing Vanderbilt’s Climate Change Research Network, Professor Vandenbergh serves as co-director of the law school’s Regulatory Program. A recipient of the Hall-Hartman Teaching Award, he teaches courses in environmental law and property. Professor Vandenbergh is a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School during fall 2009.

 

Representative Publications

Articles

• "Climate Change: The China Problem," 81 So. Cal L. Rev. 905 (2008)

• "Climate Change: The Low-Hanging Fruit," 55 UCLA L. Rev. 1701 (2008)

• "Climate Change: The Equity Problem," 30 Virginia Environmental Law Journal (2007) (with Brooke Ackerly) (symposium issue)

• "The Carbon-Neutral Individual," 82 New York University Law Review 1673 (2007) (with Anne Steinemann)

• "The New Wal-Mart Effect: The Role of Private Contracting in Global Governance," 54 UCLA Law Review 913 (2007)

• "Inside the Administrative State: A Critical Look at the Practice of Presidential Control," 105 Michigan Law Review 1 (2006) (with Lisa Bressman)

• "The Private Life of Public Law," 105 Columbia Law Review 2029 (2005)

• “Order Without Social Norms: How Personal Norm Activation Can Protect the Environment,” 99 Northwestern University Law Review 1101 (2005)

• "From Smokestack to SUV: The Individual as Regulated Entity in the New Era of Environmental Law," 57 Vanderbilt Law Review 515 (2004)

Working Papers

• "Activating Norms to Change Driving Habits: An Examination of Persuasive Communication Techniques Based on the Norm Activation Model"
• "Consumption and the Environment"

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