Marilyn Averill, CSTPR and ENVS graduate student at CU, will give a talk on Monday, October 27, 2008 on "Climate Litigation: The Role of the Judiciary in U.S. Climate Policy". The talk will be from 12:00 - 1:00 pm in the CSTPR Conference Room.

The talk is free and open to the public and will be held at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research's conference room. Click here for directions.

This will be a "brown bag seminar". Feel free to bring your lunches if you wish.

Absrtact: Many advocates have filed cases in U.S. federal and state courts in order to clarify roles and responsibilities, to promote or block action, or address other issues relating to climate change.  Climate litigation cases are different from most environmental cases that come before U.S. courts.  Climate science presents challenging complexities and uncertainties.  Causes generally are spatially and temporally distant from their effects.   Impacts are incremental and develop gradually, with most effects projected into the future.  Responsibility is diffused and costs and benefits are unevenly distributed.  Everyone is responsible for and everyone will be affected by climate change, but in varying degrees.  Congress has not yet provided a comprehensive legal framework for climate change, and the applicability of existing laws is uncertain.  Many states and local governments have moved ahead of the federal government on both climate mitigation and adaptation measures.

Federal judges vary in their opinions about the role of the courts in setting or clarifying climate policy, and some decisions have focused more on who should decide these cases than on climate change itself.  Judges are considering the roles that the executive, legislative and judicial legal branches should play in resolving climate-related disputes and how conflicts between state and federal policies and interests should be resolved.

This talk is part of a larger study about how federal judges view their role in developing U.S. climate policy.  The talk will focus primarily on Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court case involving climate change and the Clean Air Act, to illustrate the variation in judges’ opinions about the role of the judiciary in cases relating to climate change.

Biography: Marilyn Averill is a doctoral student in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado.  Her research interests focus on international environmental governance, the politics of science, and science and technology policy, particularly in the context of global climate change.  Her most recent work involves the use of science and the treatment of uncertainty in litigation relating to climate change, and the effects these cases may have on law, science, and policy.

Before returning to graduate school, Marilyn was an attorney with the Office of the Solicitor, United States Department of the Interior, where she provided legal advice to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service.  She holds Master’s degrees in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government and in Educational Research and Evaluation Methodology from the University of Colorado, and a law degree from the University of Colorado.