Law Commons^™

Seven Principles For Equitable Adaptation, Alice Kaswan

Alice Kaswan

Given the inevitability of serious climate impacts, climate change adaptation is becoming an urgent priority. Policy makers at the local, regional, state, and federal level are struggling to determine how to parlay existing authorities and develop new measures to avoid future calamity.

Successful adaptation will require not only attention to physical infrastructure, but to the underlying socioeconomic conditions that strongly determine the severity of climate impacts. Given the importance of underlying socioeconomic factors, this essay argues that equity should be a central feature of emerging domestic climate adaptation initiatives. It suggests seven principles for achieving equitable adaptation, principles designed to …

Environmental Justice And Environmental Law, Alice Kaswan

Alice Kaswan

This essay, prepared for the Fordham Environmental Law Review’s 20th Anniversary edition marking key developments in environmental law, addresses the past and future of environmental justice. From a historical perspective, it analyzes the central features of the environmental justice movement, its strengths and weaknesses in influencing environmental law, and the systemic reasons why environmental justice has struggled for influence in environmental policy. Looking forward, the essay focuses on how the environmental justice movement can contribute to the future of environmental law. Amplifying the voices of many environmental justice scholars, it argues that the environmental justice movement and its sister movement, …