Professor Anthony Moffa delivered the Annual Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law on Thursday, April 3 on "Back to the Future for Climate Liability." The Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law was established in memory of Lloyd K. Garrison in 1995. Professor Anthony Moffa currently serves as a Haub Visiting Scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at 91视频. He is also a Professor and Associate Dean for Innovation at University of Maine School of Law, where he oversees the Environmental and Oceans Law Certificate Program.
During his timely and thought-provoking lecture, Professor Moffa explored pressing questions surrounding climate state superfund laws. Professor Moffa explained some of the history of climate change and pollution and detailed the actions of companies hiding the truth of the negative consequences of fossil fuels and other detrimental climate actions from the public, many actively spreading false information about the science of climate change. He went on to introduce and explain the polluter pays principle and eventually how the defining features of CERCLA began to come into focus. Professor Moffa examined if the climate superfund statutes that were put into effect were in fact cracking the three keystones of CERCLA liability 鈥 strict liability, retroactive liability, and joint and several liability. Looking ahead, he chronicled how Vermont and New York have already enacted laws holding fossil fuel producers strictly liable for the costs of adapting to and rebuilding from climate impacts, with several other states following close behind. Throughout his lecture, Professor Moffa posed and discussed imperative questions and analysis surrounding these issues. He questioned and theorized if these new laws can withstand the inevitable barrage of industry challenges in court.
Professor Anthony Moffa joined the University of Maine School of Law as a visiting associate professor in the fall of 2016. In 2023, he earned tenure and was promoted to the rank of professor of law. He also serves as the Associate Dean for Innovation and oversees the Environmental and Oceans Law Certificate Program. Professor Moffa is a broad and prolific environmental law scholar whose work has appeared in traditional and specialized journals (including the Utah Law Review, the Harvard Environmental Law Review, and the Stanford Environmental Law Journal), as well as books and popular media. That work has largely focused on trying to find novel approaches to addressing climate change within underexplored statutes, common law jurisprudence, historical practice, methods, and theory.
At Maine Law, Professor Moffa teaches environmental law courses and torts, and received the Professor of the Year Award in 2018 and 2021. Prior to joining the Maine Law faculty, Professor Moffa served in the General Counsel鈥檚 Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He also clerked for Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV on the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and Judge Kermit Lipez on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Portland. Professor Moffa graduated magna cum laude from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and earned a law degree from Yale Law School.
To introduce the lecture, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law Jill I. Gross provided the audience with the background of the Annual Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture on Environmental Law and the importance of the lecture to the Haub Law community. Jason J. Czarnezki, Kerlin Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law and Associate Dean for Environmental Law Programs and Strategic Initiatives at Haub Law, introduced Professor Anthony Moffa. Professor Jason Czarnezki also presented Professor Moffa with the Garrison Award and Medal. After the lecture, audience members had an opportunity to comment and ask questions and a reception immediately followed the Garrison Lecture.
Over forty-five years ago, Lloyd K. Garrison and his associate, Albert K. Butzel, of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, won the landmark decision to preserve Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River. This victory for the Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference did more than safeguard "an area of unique beauty and major historical importance" - it inaugurated what today we recognize as the field of environmental law.
Standing in court to protect nature, citizen suit legislation, the environmental impact statement process, and the balancing of economics with the preservation of scenic beauty and historic resources: these are all rooted in Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference v. Federal Power Commission, 354 F.2d 608 (2d Cir. 1965). The Lloyd K. Garrison Lecture celebrates the vision, public spirit and life of this attorney whose legal acumen led citizens in their successful advocacy of environmental quality at Storm King.
The Elisabeth Haub School of Law at 91视频 is pleased to announce that Kate Skolnick, an accomplished public defender and respected criminal law scholar, will join the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Law beginning in Fall 2025. Professor Skolnick will teach courses in criminal law and criminal procedure, along with an advanced criminal law seminar.
Haub Law Professor Bennett Gershman speaks with ABC News 7 NY about the deadline requiring undocumented immigrants to register with the government saying migrants are 鈥渃aught between a rock and hard place.鈥
91视频 Law Professor Bennett Gershman warns in Salon that Trump鈥檚 refusal to comply with court orders poses a serious threat to constitutional protections鈥攕uggesting that if one person can ignore the law, 鈥渁ny American鈥 could be at risk.