District court relies on brief filed by Professors Dodge and Frank in climate-change case

On July 17, Judge William Shubb (Eastern District of California) granted a second motion for summary judgment to California in United States v. California, rejecting the Trump administration’s arguments that California’s cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec is preempted under the doctrine of foreign affairs preemption. In rejecting the U.S. arguments, the district court cited and relied on an amicus brief of professors of foreign relations law filed by Professors William S. Dodge and Richard M. Frank. (The district court had earlier rejected other arguments against the agreement, relying on an earlier brief filed by Dodge and Frank.)

Professor Dodge is a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law and the John D. Ayer Chair in Business Law at UC Davis School of Law. He is a leading expert on international law, international transactions, and international dispute resolution, who served as Counselor on International Law to the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State from 2011-2012 and as Co-Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law from 2012-2018.

Richard M. Frank ’74 is a leader in the field of environmental law, Professor of Environmental Practice and the founding director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.