Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program

The mission of the School of Law's Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Program is to foster informed analysis of timely and important issues involving governance and regulation in environmental policy. The Evan Frankel Program examines the institutions and processes that determine how decisions are made and how policies are implemented.

Upcoming Events Sponsored by the Evan Frankel Program:

Working Conference on Nanotechnology Policy
April 17, 2009
UCLA School of Law/California NanoSystems Institute

The 2009 Working Conference on Nanotech Regulatory Policy will be held at the UCLA campus on April 17. The Conference will bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and researchers, policymakers, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses for action-oriented workshop panels on the science and policy of nanotechnology. California Assemblymember Mike Feuer will be our featured lunch speaker. The morning sessions will be held at UCLA School of Law, and the lunch and afternoon sessions will take place at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.

Bringing Expertise to Bear on Public Policy Issues

The Evan Frankel Program supports ongoing research on public policy issues relating to environmental governance and regulation.

The Evan Frankel Program has supported recent scholarship on climate change and the financial sector, including Climate Change and the Transformation of Risk: Insurance Matters (forthcoming, UCLA Law Review, 2008) and Limiting Liability in the Greenhouse: Insurance Risk-Management Strategies in the Context of Global Climate Change (Stanford Environmental Law Journal and Stanford Journal of International Law, Vol. 43A, 2007).
In the UCLA/Frankel Working Paper #3, Species Protection versus State Agency Autonomy: Striking the appropriate balance under the California Endangered Species Act, UCLA School of Law student Dhananjay Manthripragada considers whether inter-agency consultation and permitting requirements afford species adequate protection under CESA and other state endangered species acts, concludes that the requirements are not protective enough, and proposes and discusses policy solutions and statutory language that if implemented would address this concern while minimizing unwelcome intrusion upon state lead agency autonomy. This paper was commissioned by the California State Senate Natural Resources Committee.
In UCLA/Frankel Working Paper #2, Falling Flat: Why the CEQA Affordable Housing Exemptions Have Not Been Effective, UCLA School of Law students Ethan N. Elkind and Edward Michael Stone examine whether affordable housing developers have been using CEQA exemptions, and how affordable housing developers comply with CEQA in general. This paper was commissioned by the California State Senate Tranportation and Housing Committee. Both student papers were developed under the supervision of Professor Jonathan Zasloff.
UCLA/Frankel Working Paper #1, Pollution Prevention as a Regulatory Tool in California: Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges, by Professor Timothy Malloy and Occidental College researcher Peter Sinsheimer, studied pollution prevention in the dry cleaning industry in southern California.

Convening Teachers and Researchers to Improve Environmental Legal Education and Research

The Evan Frankel Program has planned and hosted two meetings of environmental law faculty and program directors from law schools all over the nation, the most recent of which took place in January 2008. Representatives of 21 law schools participated in this meeting. The participants discussed teaching and research on climate change, training the new generation of environmental lawyers and leaders, and law schools' participation in informing environmental policy. These meetings have laid the foundation for enduring collaboration and cooperation among law schools' environmental programs.

Bringing Researchers Together to Engage in Environmental Problem-Solving

The Evan Frankel Program has sponsored several recent public symposia, including:

The UCLA Law Review's daylong symposium, "Changing Climates: Adapting Law and Policy to a Transforming World." The public symposium, partially funded through the law school's Evan Frankel Environmental Law & Policy Program, brought together policymakers, legal scholars and environmental experts to address the impact of climate change on law and policy. Articles from the symposium will be published soon in Volume 56 of the UCLA Law Review.

The 2007 Frankel Symposium: Coping with Global Warming, Friday, March 2, 2007. This conference was a great success. The conference focused on how we will adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change, even as we all work to prevent those impacts. Articles from the symposium are featured in a special issue of the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy.

The 2006 Frankel Symposium, Preventing and Responding to Catastrophe: The Role of Environmental Law and Policy, which took place at the UCLA School of Law on April 7, 2006. Leading scholars, advocates and government officials discussed disaster planning and response, with particular attention to global climate change and to the vulnerability of California's levee system. Bruce Babbitt gave the keynote address, stressing the importance of land-use planning in ensuring that more housing isn't built in vulnerable areas. Read about the symposium on Planetizen.com.

Bringing Government Agencies and Citizens Together to Find Solutions to Environmental Challenges

The Evan Frankel Program brings together stakeholders and policymakers to work toward solutions to critical environmental problems.

The Evan Frankel Program hosted a workshop California Department of Toxic Substances Control on environmental enforcement, environmental justice, and public participation in 2007. Sean Hecht co-facilitated the workshop.
The Environmental Law Center's Evan Frankel Program hosted and co-sponsored with the California District Attorneys' Association a workshop, The Power of Collaboration, exploring the ways in which government environmental enforcement professionals and nongovernmental organizations can work together to address our pressing environmental challenges. The workshop, which convened at the UCLA School of Law on October 27, 2006, focused on air quality and global climate change. Executive Director Sean Hecht and former Assemblyman Fred Keeley co-facilitated the workshop.