(Washington, DC) — Hannah Chang, a 2007 Yale Law School graduate, has been named the winner of the second annual ELI-ABA “Endangered Environmental Laws” Student Writing Competition. Ms.Chang will receive a $2000 award and publication in ELI’s flagship journal The Environmental Law Reporter (ELR), the only attorney-edited law review covering environmental and natural resource issues.
Ms. Chang’s winning entry, “Foreign Affairs Preemption: The Legality of California’s Link with the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme,” examines the extent to which California and other U.S. states may enact climate change legislation and enter into international agreements, given the constitutional constraints of the dormant foreign affairs power and dormant foreign Commerce Clause. “Her article does a terrific job of considering how states might react to climate change, despite the potential impacts of foreign affairs preemption,” said Jay Austin, Director of ELI’s Program on the Constitution, Courts, and Legislation.
Honorable mentions for the award went to Kimberly Breedon of the University of Cincinnati College of Law, for her entry “Garamendi’s Unspoken Assumptions: Assessing Executive Foreign Affairs Preemption Challenges to State Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” and Linus Chen of Emory University School of Law, for his entry on construing the Clean Water Act’s delegation provision in light of the Endangered Species Act (“American Forest v. Environmental Protection Agency — 5th Circuit’s Deadly Sin to Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act; Defenders of Wildlife v. EPA — 9th Circuit’s Redemption; and Salvation from the Supreme Court?”).
The competition, co-sponsored by ELI’s Endangered Environmental Laws Program and the Constitutional Law Committee of the ABA’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, invites law students to explore issues at the intersection of constitutional and environmental law. “Each of these papers on timely topics helps advance our understanding of the constitutional foundation of modern environmental law,” explained Leslie Carothers, President of the Institute. “Their authors are part of the next generation of legal scholars and practitioners.” The entry will not be available to the public until its publication in the fall of 2007 in ELI’s Environmental Law Reporter.
ELI’s Program on the Constitution, Courts, and Legislation seeks to defend the U.S. frameworkof environmental law by advancing a vision of constitutional and environmental law based on principles such as broad access to federal courts, uniform minimum federal environmental standards, and leeway for state innovation in environmental protection. For more information, please contact Jay Austin at (202) 558-3103, or austin@eli.org.