School Notes: Yale Law School
March/April 2016

Yale team takes action at climate talks

Yale Law School professor Dan Esty ’86JD and Dena Adler ’17JD/MEM attended the UN Climate Change Conference, which took place in Paris from November 30 to December 11, 2015, to support broadened engagement of mayors, governors/provincial leaders, and the private sector in the international climate change negotiations. As part of the Yale Climate Change Dialogue—a project of the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy (YCELP)—Professor Esty, Dena Adler, and Lisa Dale (YCELP associate director) partnered with the city of Paris to contribute to development of a local leaders’ climate-change action pledge—the Paris Declaration—and the accompanying 21 Solutions report. The declaration provides a link for local leaders to support the international climate change agreement reached at the end of the conference. Lindsay Brewer ’17JD/MEM also attended the international climate change negotiations with the Palau delegation as part of a project through the Yale Environmental Protection Clinic.

Report questions Ebola quarantines

“Fear, Politics, and Ebola,” a report written by students and faculty of the Yale Global Health Justice Partnership (GHJP) and the staff of the American Civil Liberties Union, was released in December 2015. It examines the US response to the 2014–2015 Ebola epidemic, and is critical of the 23 states that implemented quarantines and movement restriction policies that exceeded Centers for Disease Control guidelines. The report found the restrictions violated individuals’ rights and hampered efforts to fight the disease by discouraging American doctors and nurses from traveling abroad. The report was authored by Gregg Gonsalves ’11, ’18PhD, GHJP codirector; Amy Kapczynski ’03JD, professor at Yale Law School and faculty director of the GHJP; YLS alumna Rose Goldberg ’15JD and student Emma Roth ’17JD; Yale School of Public Health student Ryan Boyko ’18 and alumni Samantha Batman ’15MPH and Erinma Kalu ’14, ’15MPH; and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies grad David Gonzalez ’15MESc. GHJP is a joint program of the Yale School of Public Health and Yale Law School.