American Bar Association Trends

Writing for the American Bar Association’s Trends, Dr. Carol A. Jones, Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute, describes the emerging potential of liability lawsuits to help protect biodiversity—including from illegal wildlife trade.

She describes a number of recent studies and lawsuits, concluding,

Despite potential impediments, adding to the policy tool kit the strategic use of environmental liability suits for illegal resource exploitation by well-resourced defendants has the potential to expand the resources available to restore biodiversity.