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Environmental Law & Policy Annual Review

The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) is a law class that produces a joint publication between Vanderbilt Law School and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI)—an internationally recognized, non-partisan research and education center based in Washington, D.C. working to strengthen environmental protection by improving law and governance worldwide.

The 2022-23 ELPAR Award Winners

The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) is published annually in the August issue of the Environmental Law Report (ELR) in collaboration with the Vanderbilt University Law School and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) in Washington, DC. Each year, Vanderbilt Law students work with an expert advisory committee, senior staff from ELI, and Vanderbilt Law professors to identify the year's best academic articles that present legal and policy solutions to pressing environmental problems. This year's winners are (articles published in AY 2021):

  • Quinn Curtis, Jill Fisch, and Adriana Robertson, Do MSG Mutual Funds Deliver on Their Promises?, 120 MICH. L. REV. 393*; 
  • J.B. Ruhl and Robin Craig, 4°C,  106 MINN. L. REV. 191*; 
  • Sonya Ziaja, How Algorithm-Assisted Decision Making is Influencing Environmental Law and Climate Adaptation, 48 ECOLOGY L.Q. 899*; 
  • Cass Sunstein, Arbitrariness Review and Climate Change, 102 U. PA. L. REV. 991; and
  • Avi Zevin, Sam Walsh, Justin Gundlach, and Isabel Carey, Building a New Grid without New Legislation: A Path to Revitalizing Federal Transmission Authorities, 48 ECOLOGY L. Q. 169.

*Articles marked with an asterisk will also be discussed during ELPAR's DC Conference on Friday, March 31, 2023.

In addition, three articles were selected for Honorable Mention: 

  • Albert Lin, Making Net Zero Matter, 79 WASH & LEE L. REV. 679;
  • Justin Pidot and Ezekiel Peterson, Conservation Rights-Of-Way on Public Lands, 55 U.C. DAVIS L. REVIEW. 89; and
  • Danielle Stokes, Renewable Energy Federalism, 106 MINN. L. REV. 1757.

The Top 20 articles selected for ELPAR 2022-2023 can be viewed on the ELPAR webpage. 

 

ELPAR Class Photo 2022-23Row 1 (l to r): Professor Michael Vandenbergh, Mary Michael-Robertson, Kyle Blasinsky, Madeline Claire Thompson, Natalia Wurst, Karalyn Berman, Professor Linda Breggin, Carrigan English, Jacqueline Noel; Row 2 (l to r): Michael Kamer, Thomas Boynton, Michael Furnari, Kristen Sarna, Grace Su, Angela Brown, Jane Dimnwaobi; Row 3 (l to r): Tasia Harris, Rohit Murthy, Yash Dattani, Samuel Puliafito, Henry Woods, Christopher Burrows, Robert Binkowski.

Each year, Vanderbilt Law School students work with their course instructors, an expert advisory board and senior staff from ELI to identify some of the best environmental law and policy proposals in the legal academic literature. The result is a one issue, student-edited volume that includes condensed versions of these articles will be published in the August 2023 issue of the  Environmental Law Reporter and will also be made available in August. The selected articles and commentaries are published in the August Issue of the Environmental Law Reporter (ELR) and presented at annual conferences in Washington, D.C. and in Nashville, TN. ELPAR students participate in the conferences which are typically attended by representatives from businesses, state and federal government agencies, think tanks, trade associations and non-profit organizations.

ELPAR is designed to bring ideas from the academy to policymakers and practitioners, as well as recognize and incentivize scholars to write articles that include creative and feasible law and policy proposals. At the same time, ELPAR seeks to provide a first-rate educational experience to law students interested in environmental law and policy.

Learn More about ELPAR through Environmental Law Institute
Vibrant Environment Blog and
student-hosted ELPAR Podcast Series on ELI's People, Places, Planet Podcast

2023 ELPAR & ELI Conference Webinar

View the Agenda  |   View the Slides

Sponsored by: ELI and Vanderbilt Law School
Co-sponsored by: D.C. Bar Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Community and Women's Council on Energy and the Environment