Anthony Moffa

Professor of Law,
Associate Dean for Innovation

207.780.4214

anthony.moffa@maine.edu

Download Curriculum Vitae

300 Fore Street, Room 523
Portland, ME 04101

Education

B.S., magna cum laude, University of Pennsylvania
J.D., Yale Law School

Current Courses

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Environment
Environmental Law & Policy
Law Review
Natural Resources
Ocean & Coastal Law Journal
Torts
Water Law Practicum

Research Interests

Climate Change Law
Environmental Law
Indian Law
Natural Resources Law
Property Law

Research Blog

In the Media

Anthony Moffa joined the University of Maine School of Law as a visiting associate professor in the fall of 2016. In 2019, he assumed his current role as an associate professor of law. Professor Moffa’s research and writing focuses on the legal tools available to combat the policy challenge of global climate change, drawing on the fields of environmental law, administrative law, criminal law, property law, and international law.

Professor Moffa oversees the Environmental and Oceans Law Certificate Program at Maine Law. In addition to teaching courses in the environmental law curriculum, he also covers the core subjects of torts and trusts and estates. In recognition of his teaching, he 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’s 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. When not in his office thinking about the law or the environment, he can be found outdoors, most likely thinking about music or food.

Selected Publications

From Comprehensive Liability to Climate Liability: The Case for Climate Adaptation Resilience and Liability Act (CARLA), 47 HARV. ENV't L. REV. 473 (2023). [PDF]

Strength in Numbers (of Words): Empirical Analysis of Preambles and Public Comments, NEV. L. J. (2021). [SSRN] [PDF]

Constitutional Authority, Common Resources, and the Climate, UTAH L. REV. (2021). [SSRN] [PDF]

Environmental Indifference, 45 HARV. ENVTL. L. REV. 333 (2021). [SSRN] [HELR][PDF]

Word Limited: An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between the Length, Resiliency, and Impact of Environmental Regulations, 20 NEV. L. J. 733 (2020). [SSRN] [NEVADA]

Additional Publications

Private Environmental Nudges, 127 Dick. L. Rev. 361 (2023). [PDF] [SSRN]

Uniform Climate Control, 54 UNIV. RICH. L. REV. 993 (2020). [SSRN] [PDF]

Conserving a Vision: Acadia, Katahdin, and the Pathway from Private Lands to Park Lands, 71 ME. L. REV. 38 (2019) (with Sean Flaherty). [PDF] [SSRN]

Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Environmental Decisionmaking, 49 ENV. L. REP. 10309 (2019) (with Greta Swanson, Minnie Degawan, & Kathy Hodgson-Smith). [ELR]

Environmens Rea, 122 PENN ST. L. REV. 299 (2018). [PENN] [SSRN]

The Oil Sands of Time: Pipelines and Promises, 22 OCEAN & COASTAL L.J. 111 (2017). [PDF] [SSRN]

Traditional Ecological Rulemaking, 35 STAN. ENVTL. L.J. 102 (2016). [PDF] [SSRN]

Cruel Exposure in Unusual Times: COVID-19 and the Eighth Amendment, NW. U. L. REV. OF NOTE (2020). [NULR]

Freedom from the Costs of Trade: A Principled Argument Against Dormant Commerce Clause Scrutiny of Goods Movement Policies, 21 NYU ENVTL. L. J. 344 (2014) (with Stephanie L. Safdi). [NYU] [SSRN]

Wasting the Planet: What a Storied Doctrine of Property Brings to Bear on Environmental Law and Climate Change, 27 J. ENVTL. L. & LITIG. 459 (2012). [YALE] [SSRN]

Why Climate Change Collective Action has Failed and What Needs to be Done Within and Without the Trade Regime, 15 J. INT’L. ECON. L. 777 (2012) (with Daniel C. Esty). [JIEL] [SSRN]

Two Competing Models of Activism, One Goal: A Case Study of Anti-Whaling Campaigns in the Southern Ocean, 37 YALE J. INT’L. L. 201 (2012). [YALE] [SSRN]