Alice Kaswan

Professor Alice Kaswan is an expert on climate change and on environmental justice. She has written and spoken widely about climate federalism, addressing the appropriate roles of federal, state, and local governments in mitigating and adapting to climate change. Her work also explores the intersection between environmental justice and climate change policies.

Kaswan is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a member scholar for the Center for Progressive Reform, and a past Chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Environmental Law Section.

• Climate change policy
• Climate justice
• Environmental justice

• Harvard Law School, JD cum laude, 1991
• UC Berkeley, BS with highest honors in Conservation and Resource Studies, 1984

• Assistant Professor, Columbus School of Law, Catholic University
• Associate, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
• Associate, Berle, Kass & Case
• Law Clerk, Hon. Marie L. Garibaldi, New Jersey Supreme Court

• “Climate Justice.” In Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, ed. Michael B. Gerrard, Jody Freeman, and Michael Burger. (ABA Book Publishing, January 2023). SSRN.

• Background on Environmental Justice and Racism, in the Palgrave Handbook of Global Sustainability (Robert Brinkman, ed. 2022) SSRN.

• Climate Justice and the Social Pillar in California’s Climate Policies, in The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development 26 (Sumudu A. Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez, and Sara L. Seck, eds, 2021. SSRN.

• Distributive Environmental Justice, in Environmental Justice: Key Issues (Brendan Coolsaet, ed. 2020).
• Adaptation Justice, in Climate Change Law, Encyclopedia of Environmental Law (Daniel Farber and Marjan Peeters, eds, 2016). SSRN.
• Reconciling Justice and Efficiency: Integrating Environmental Justice into Domestic Cap-and-Trade Programs for Controlling Greenhouse Gases, in Arnold, Denis, ed., Ethics and Global Climate Change (Cambridge University Press, 2011) SSRN.

• "Environmental Justice in State Climate Planning: Learning from California," Center for Progressive Reform (2024), (primary author, with Catalina Gonzalez).
• "Climate Justice Funding Lessons from California: Program Design and Engagement Opportunities," Center for Progressive Reform Issue Brief (2024), (primary author, with Catalina Gonzalez).
• "Funding a Clean and Equitable Energy Transition: Lessons from California" (Center for Progressive Reform series of fact sheets and reports, November 2023) (primary author, with Catalina Gonzalez).
• Climate, Energy, Justice: The Policy Path to a Just Transition for an Energy-Hungry America (October 2021).
• “Creating Home: Multilevel Governance Structures for Emerging Climate Migration,” 93 Temple Law Review 735 (July 2021).
• “Statutory Purpose in the Rollback Wars,” 71 Hastings Law Journal 1177 (2020). 
• “Carbon Pricing: Essential but Insufficient,” Center for Progressive Reform Issue Brief (2019). 
• “California Climate Policies Serving Climate Justice,” ABA Natural Resources & Environmental Journal 12 (2019). 
• “A Broader Vision for Climate Policy: Lessons from California,” 9 San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law 83 (2017-2018). 
• “Energy, Governance, and Market Mechanisms,” 72 University of Miami Law Review 476 (2018).
• “Untapped Potential: The Carbon Reductions Left Out of EPA’s Clean Power Plan,” Center for Progressive Reform (2016).
• "Cooperative Federalism and Adaptation, in The Law and Policy of Environmental Federalism: A Comparative Analysis" (Kalyani Robbins, ed., 2015) 
• “Climate Adaptation and Land Use Governance: The Vertical Axis,” 39 Columbia Journal of Environmental Law 390 (2014).
• “Climate Change Adaptation and Land Use: Exploring the Federal Role,” 47 John Marshall Law Review 509 (2014). (Symposium Issue)
• “Controlling Power Plants: The Co-Pollutant Implications of EPA’s Clean Air Act § 111(d) Options for Greenhouse Gases,” 32 Virginia Journal of Environmental Law 173 (2014).
• “Climate Change and Environmental Justice: Lessons from the California Lawsuits,” 5 San Diego Journal of Climate and Energy Law 1 (2014). 
• “Environmental Justice and Environmental Law,” 24 Fordham Environmental Law Review (2012-2013). (Re-printed in Law and Ethics in the Business Environment (Stamford, Conn.: Cengage Learning, 8th Ed., 2013))
• “Seven Principles for Equitable Adaptation,” XII Sustainable Development Law & Policy Journal 41 (2013). 
• “Domestic Climate Change Adaptation and Equity,” 42 Environmental Law Reporter News & Analysis 11125 (2012). 
• “Climate Change, the Clean Air Act, and Industrial Pollution,” 30 UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy
• “Climate Change and the Puget Sound: Building the Legal Framework for Adaptation,” 2 Climate Law 299 (2011). (Co-authored with William L. Andreen, et al.) SSRN
• “Decentralizing Cap-and-Trade? State Controls Within a Federal Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade Program,” 28 Virginia Journal of Environmental Law 343 (2010).
• “Greening the Grid and Climate Justice,” 39 Environmental Law 1143 (2009).
• “Decentralizing Cap-and-Trade? The Question of State Stringency,” 1 San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law 103 (2009).
• “Climate Change, Consumption, and Cities,” 36 Fordham Urban Law Journal 253 (2009).
• “A Cooperative Federalism Proposal for Climate Legislation: The Value of State Autonomy in a Federal System,” 85 Denver University Law Review 791 (2008). 
• “Environmental Justice and Domestic Climate Change Policy,” 38 Environmental Law Reporter 10287 (2008). (Also published as "Justice in a Warming World" in The Environmental Forum (2009; excerpt of the article was published in Environmental Justice: Law, Policy & Regulation, 2009.)
• “The Domestic Response to Global Climate Change: What Role for Federal, State, and Litigation Initiatives?,” 42 University of San Francisco Law Review 39 (2007).
• “Defining the Movement: Parallels Between Feminism and Environmentalism,” 9 Cardozo Women's Law Journal 455 (2003).
• “Distributive Justice and the Environment,” 81 North Carolina Law Review 1031 (2003).
• “A Survey of Federal Agency Response to President Clinton's Executive Order No. 12898 on Environmental Justice,” 31 Environmental Law Reporter 11133 (2001). (With Denis Binder, Colin Crawford, Eileen Gauna, M. Casey Jarman, Bradford C. Mank, Catherine O'Neill, Clifford Rechtschaffen, and Robert R. M. Verchick)
• “Environmental Laws: Grist for the Equal Protection Mill,” 70 University of Colorado Law Review 387 (1999).
• “Environmental Justice: Bridging the Gap Between Environmental Laws and Justice,” 47 American University Law Review 221 (1997).