Rachel Rothschild: State Climate Superfunds

An event in corporation with Max Planck Law.

About the Speaker:
Rachel Rothschild is an assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School. Her scholarship sits at the intersection of environmental law, history, and policy. She is the author of Poisonous Skies: Acid Rain and the Globalization of Pollution (University of Chicago Press, 2019), and she is currently at work on a second book project tentatively titled Environmental Science and the Administrative State. Her recent research has focused on the regulation of toxic substances, the history of the major questions doctrine, and the constitutionality of state climate superfund laws. In 2025, Rothschild was named the Pace Haub School of Law Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar, and in 2026, she received the New Directions in Environmental Law award.

About the Topic:
At present, governments and taxpayers shoulder the enormous costs of climate adaptation. However, state legislators in the U.S. have recently proposed enacting new and unprecedented laws, referred to as state climate superfunds. They would require the companies who have most profited from fossil fuel usage to assist in funding climate adaptation projects based on their historic emissions. Professor Rachel Rothschild will explain these novel proposals and the potential constitutional issues with states passing such laws. She will discuss how states can design climate superfunds to confirm with prior U.S. legal precedents and balance the competing values at stake as we adapt to a warmer world.

The virtual lecture will be held as a video conference via Zoom. Please register no later than Tuesday, 27 October 2026 using this LINK.

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