Travel Grant: Sociolegal Studies and Weather Events

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

Many governance measures are developed by lawyers, government officials, and experts in science and engineering whose specialized knowledge inform the development of standards and the measures of outcomes. Yet when those regulatory mechanisms break down, remedies can be hard to identify. Stakeholders, including environmental organizations, may pursue remedies in courts at regional, national or transnational levels. Courts in these different jurisdictions therefore become a significant but understudied part of the policy-making apparatus. This workshop invites scholars to synthesize new models of legal mobilization in this pressing regulatory environment (1) through litigation;(2) through local and regional governance;(3) through the variable expertise taken as relevant to making decisions, including data analytics expertise and law.