Climate Change, Courts, and the Common Law

Inaugural Lecture - Douglas A. Kysar, Joseph M.  Field ’55 Professor of Law
November 15, 2010
Doug Kysar is a path-breaking scholar in the areas of environmental law and torts. His book "Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental Law and the Search for Objectivity" (Yale University Press 2010) seeks to reinvigorate environmental law and policy by offering novel theoretical insights on cost-benefit analysis, the precautionary principle, and
sustainable development. Professor Kysar is also the co-author of a leading casebook, The Torts Process (2007).
When asked about his Inaugural Lecture, Professor Kysar responded: “To date, scholars exploring the connection between climate change and tort law have tended to ask what the latter can do about the former. With a few notable exceptions, they have answered, ‘Not much.’ This lecture will pose the inverse question: What can climate change do about tort law? As it turns out, the answer is, ‘Quite a bit.’”