Sarah E. Light

• Amanda Shanor and Sarah E. Light (2022), Greenwashing and the First Amendment, Columbia Law Review, 122 (), pp. 2033-2118. Abstract

  Recent explosive growth in environmental and climate-related marketing claims by business firms has raised concerns about their truthfulness. Critics argue (or at least question whether) such claims constitute greenwashing, which refers to a set of deceptive marketing practices in which an entity publicly misrepresents or exaggerates the positive environmental impact of a product, service, or the entity itself. The extent to which greenwashing can be regulated consistent with the First Amendment raises thorny doctrinal questions that have bedeviled both courts and scholars, the answers to which have implications far beyond environmental marketing claims. This Essay is the first to offer both doctrinal clarity and a normative approach to understanding how the First Amendment should tackle issues at the nexus of science, politics, and markets. It contends that the analysis should be driven by the normative values underlying the protection of speech under the First Amendment in the disparate doctrines that govern these three arenas. When listeners are epistemically dependent for information on commercial speakers, regulation of such speech for truthfulness is consistent with the First Amendment and subject to the laxer review of the commercial speech doctrine. This is because citizens must have accurate information not only to knowledgeably participate at the ballot box but also to have meaningful freedom in economic life itself.

  Related
  Files

  Shanor & Light.Greenwashing and the First Amendment.FINAL
• Sarah E. Light and Christina Skinner (2021), Banks and Climate Governance, Columbia Law Review, 121 (), pp. 1895-1956. Abstract

  Major banks in the United States and globally have begun to assert an active role in the transition to a low-carbon economy and the reduction of climate risk through private environmental and climate governance. This Essay situates these actions within historical and economic contexts: It explains how the legal foundations of banks’ sense of social purpose intersect with their economic incentives to finance major structural tran­sitions in society. In doing so, this Essay sheds light on the reasons why we can expect banks to be at the center of this contemporary transition. This Essay then considers how banks have taken up this role to date. It proposes a novel taxonomy of the various forms of private environmental and climate governance emerging in the U.S. banking sector today. Fi­nally, this Essay offers a set of factors against which to normatively assess the value of these actions. While many scholars have focused on the role of shareholders and equity in private environmental and climate govern­ance, this Essay is the first to position these steps taken by banks within that larger context.

• Sarah E. Light (2020), National Parks, Incorporated, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 169 (), pp. 33-109. Abstract

  Public lands and private enterprise exist in an uncomfortable equilibrium. Since their founding, the national parks have embraced some forms of private enterprise, including privately-run accommodations, to bring members of the public to the parks to enjoy and appreciate their beauty. Corporations have provided financial support to the national parks through philanthropy. And private firms have benefitted from marketing their associations with the parks. Marketing campaigns that call on the feeling of being in the woods and philanthropy to the parks that may benefit corporations by association do not deplete resources or ruin aesthetic experiences like a strip mine would. Yet they nonetheless in some fashion dilute the essential publicness of the national parks. In debates over the purpose of public lands and the proper role of private enterprise within them, relationships between private firms and public lands in which the firms neither extract commodities from the parks nor physically harm them have not received sufficient attention. This Article makes three claims. First, as a descriptive matter, it identifies a set of non-extractive relationships between private firms and national parks as a distinct phenomenon. Second, as a normative matter, the Article argues that these relationships deserve greater attention in both policy and scholarship because they shed light on important questions about the significance of the public in national parks. Finally, as a prescriptive matter, the
  Article concludes that these non-extractive relationships between private firms and the national parks warrant clearer restrictions in government policy to preserve the essential publicness of these lands.

• Sarah E. Light and Carolyn Kousky (2019), Insuring Nature, Duke Law Journal, 69 (), pp. 323-376.
• Sarah E. Light (2019), The Role of Universities in Private Environmental Governance Experimentalism, Organization & Environment, 34 (), pp. 466-483.
• Sarah E. Light (2019), The Law of the Corporation as Environmental Law, Stanford Law Review, 71 (1).
• Sarah E. Light (2018), Regulatory Horcruxes, Duke Law Journal, 67 (8/2).
• Sarah E. Light, “The Role of the Federal Government in Regulating the Sharing Economy”. In Cambridge Handbook on the Law of the Sharing Economy, edited by Nestor Davidson, Michèle Finck, and John Infranca, (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2018), (:, 2018)
• Eric Biber, Sarah E. Light, J. B. Ruhl, James Salzman (2017), Regulating Business Innovation as Policy Disruption: From the Model T to Airbnb, Vanderbilt Law Review, 70 (5), pp. 1561-1626.
• Sarah E. Light (2017), Advisory Nonpreemption, Washington University Law Review, 95 (2), pp. 325-383. Related
  Links
• All Research from Sarah E. Light »

Environmental Management: Law and Policy: LGST 2150/8150 Syllabus (Fall 2022): https://apps.wharton.upenn.edu/syllabi/202230/LGST2150401/

Business, Social Responsibility, and the Environment: LGST 6130 Syllabus (Fall 2022): https://apps.wharton.upenn.edu/syllabi/202230/LGST6130001/

Climate and Environmental Leadership in Action: LGST 2600 (formerly LGST 299) (Spring 2022): https://apps.wharton.upenn.edu/syllabi/2022A/LGST299001/

Negotiations: LGST 8060 Syllabus (Fall 2021): https://apps.wharton.upenn.edu/syllabi/2021C/LGST806407/

Current Courses

• LGST2150 - Environmental Management: Law & Policy

  This course provides an introduction to environmental management by focusing on foundational concepts of environmental law and policy and how they affect business decisions. The primary aim of the course is to give students a deeper practical sense of the important relationship between business and the natural environment, the existing legal and policy framework of environmental protection, and how business managers can think about managing their relationship with both the environment and the law.

  LGST2150001 ( Syllabus )

• LGST6130 - Business, Social Responsibility, And The Environment

  This half-credit (.5 cu) course presents students with the opportunity to explore an alternative perspective to what some might consider the traditional or standard model of business. A starting point of the course is to ask whether business firms owe a “social responsibility” that includes, but goes beyond, maximizing profits. The course begins with overarching questions including to whom a business firm owes legal and ethical duties, how to balance or trade-off obligations owed to different stakeholders when they may conflict, and how to consider the distributional and other socially important implications of business decisions. Different sections of this course will examine questions about the responsibility of business toward a number of pressing environmental and social issues, including for example, climate change, fresh water availability, green marketing claims, democratic values, racial and gender diversity, human rights, poverty reduction, and global health issues such as access to medicine. These topics will be treated primarily through the lenses of law and ethics. Please consult individual instructors’ syllabi in the Wharton syllabus repository for further details on what will be covered in each individual section, and please note that topics change over time and in response to student and faculty interests. Finally, students should expect to prepare and present in groups to colleagues in classes on selected issues of business responsibility. This course fulfills the MBA Flex Core requirement in Legal Studies and Business Ethics.

  LGST6130001 ( Syllabus )

  LGST6130002 ( Syllabus )

Past Courses

• LAW5180 - Negotiations

  This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills. Cross-listed with MGMT 691/OIDD 691/LGST 806. Format: Lecture, class discussion, simulation/role play, and video demonstrations. Materials: Textbook and course pack.

• LAW6340 - Environmental Law

  Environmental Law.

• LGST2150 - Envt'l Mgmt Law & Pol

  This course provides an introduction to environmental management by focusing on foundational concepts of environmental law and policy and how they affect business decisions. The primary aim of the course is to give students a deeper practical sense of the important relationship between business and the natural environment, the existing legal and policy framework of environmental protection, and how business managers can think about managing their relationship with both the environment and the law.

• LGST2600 - Climate Environment Leadership

  This course aims to engage undergraduate students at Wharton with fundamental questions at the intersection of climate change, environmental management, ethics, and leadership. Important questions we will address include: (1) What can we learn about leadership from being in “the environment” or “the field” that we cannot as easily learn in other settings? (2) What does it mean to be a leader in the area of climate change and environmental management at a for-profit business firm? A non-profit organization? A social enterprise/benefit corporation? Within this overarching theme of environmental and climate leadership, the course examines a concrete set of timely topics through readings, discussions, guest speakers, and written assignments, including: environmental management and a circular economy; product stewardship; extended producer responsibility; environmental personhood; greenwashing; and the different types of firms and organizations in this space, including for-profit corporations, benefit corporations/social enterprises; and non-profits. The course begins with six classroom sessions on these issues with assignments and readings run and graded by Professor Light. The culminating event of the course is a weeklong Leadership Venture – a camping expedition during spring break that will include a combination of cycling, paddling, hiking and discussions about leadership and the environment. (SNF Paideia Program Course). Please see section details for important registration information.

• LGST2990 - Seminar in Law & Society

  A study of the nature, functions, and limits of law as an agency of societal policy. Each semester an area of substantive law is studied for the purpose of examining the relationship between legal norms developed and developing in the area and societal problems and needs. Please see department for current offerings.

• LGST6130 - Bus, Soc Resp&Environmt

  This half-credit (.5 cu) course presents students with the opportunity to explore an alternative perspective to what some might consider the traditional or standard model of business. A starting point of the course is to ask whether business firms owe a “social responsibility” that includes, but goes beyond, maximizing profits. The course begins with overarching questions including to whom a business firm owes legal and ethical duties, how to balance or trade-off obligations owed to different stakeholders when they may conflict, and how to consider the distributional and other socially important implications of business decisions. Different sections of this course will examine questions about the responsibility of business toward a number of pressing environmental and social issues, including for example, climate change, fresh water availability, green marketing claims, democratic values, racial and gender diversity, human rights, poverty reduction, and global health issues such as access to medicine. These topics will be treated primarily through the lenses of law and ethics. Please consult individual instructors’ syllabi in the Wharton syllabus repository for further details on what will be covered in each individual section, and please note that topics change over time and in response to student and faculty interests. Finally, students should expect to prepare and present in groups to colleagues in classes on selected issues of business responsibility. This course fulfills the MBA Flex Core requirement in Legal Studies and Business Ethics.

• LGST8060 - Negotiations

  This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills. Cross-listed with MGMT 6910/OIDD 6910/LGST 8060. Format: Lecture, class discussion, simulation/role play, and video demonstrations. Materials: Textbook and course pack.

• LGST8150 - Envt'l Mgmt Law & Pol

  This course provides an introduction to environmental management with a focus on law and policy as a basic framework. The primary aim of the course is to give students a deeper practical sense of the important relationship between business and the natural environment and to think critically about how best to manage this relationship.

• MGMT6910 - Negotiations

  This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills. Cross-listed with MGMT 6910/OIDD 6910/LGST 8060. Format: Lecture, class discussion, simulation/role play, and video demonstrations. Materials: Textbook and course pack.

• OIDD6910 - Negotiations

  This course examines the art and science of negotiation, with additional emphasis on conflict resolution. Students will engage in a number of simulated negotiations ranging from simple one-issue transactions to multi-party joint ventures. Through these exercises and associated readings, students explore the basic theoretical models of bargaining and have an opportunity to test and improve their negotiation skills. Cross-listed with MGMT 6910/OIDD 6910/LGST 8060. Format: Lecture, class discussion, simulation/role play, and video demonstrations. Materials: Textbook and course pack.

• PPE4998 - Directed Honors Research

  Student arranges with a Penn faculty member to do research and write a thesis on a suitable topic. For more information on honors visit: https://ppe.sas.upenn.edu/study/curriculum/honors-theses

• Penn Fellows Program, 2023
• Wharton Teaching Excellence Award (Undergraduate Program), 2022
• Wharton Teaching Excellence Award (MBA Program), 2022
• Winning Article, Land Use and Environment Law Review, The Law of the Corporation as Environmental Law, 2020 Description

  Annual peer-selected compendium of leading articles in environmental law.

• Top 20 Article, Environmental Law & Policy Annual Review, Insuring Nature, 2020 Description

  Annual compendium of the year’s “best environmental law or policy ideas” in the legal academic literature.

• Wharton Teaching Excellence Award, 2019
• Wharton Teaching Excellence Award, 2019
• Trustees' Council of Penn Women's 25th Anniversary Award for Excellence in Advising, 2019
• Winner, Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) Emerging Sustainability Scholar Award, 2018 Description

  The ARCS Emerging Sustainability Scholar Award recognizes a scholar in the area of corporate sustainability who is likely
  to make significant contributions to the advancement of corporate sustainability scholarship. The award will be granted
  in recognition of a scholar’s existing body of research and in anticipation of the scholar’s research trajectory. The
  selection committee will look for candidates with rigorous and salient contributions that cross disciplinary and national
  boundaries.

• Honorable Mention, Environmental Law & Policy Annual Review, Precautionary Federalism and the Sharing Economy, 2017 Description

  Sarah E. Light, Precautionary Federalism and the Sharing Economy, 66 Emory L.J. 333 (2017) was selected for Honorable Mention by the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review, a joint publication of the Environmental Law Institute and Vanderbilt Law School. The article was selected as one of the seven “best environmental law or policy ideas” from a pool of “hundreds of law journal articles on environmental topics published between August 2016-and July 2017” by “environmental leaders from the academy as well as the public and private sectors.”

• Winning article, Land Use and Environment Law Review, Parallels in Public and Private Environmental Governance, 2017 Description

  Annual peer-selected compendium of leading articles in environmental law.

• Excellence in Teaching Award in the MBA Program, 2017
• Academy of Legal Studies in Business Outstanding Proceedings Paper, for Precautionary Federalism and the Sharing Economy, 2016
• People's Choice Award, Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS), for Precautionary Federalism and the Sharing Economy, 2016
• One of ten faculty nominated by the MBA student body for the Helen Kardon Moss Anvil Award, 2016 Description

  The Helen Kardon Moss Anvil Award is awarded annually at Commencement to the one faculty member "who has exemplified outstanding teaching quality during the last year." A list of nominees is generated through a vote by MBA students and nominations from academic departments. The Anvil Award Selection Committee, comprised of student leaders, administrators and past Anvil Award winners, selects the recipient.

• Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review, Winning Article, 2015 Description

  Sarah E. Light, The Military-Environmental Complex, 55 B.C. L. Rev. 879 (2014) was selected as one of the year’s “best law and policy-relevant ideas on the environment from the legal academic literature,” (one of four winners selected from over 400 articles), with abridged version reprinted in the Environmental Law & Policy Annual Review (2015).

• Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar, 2015 Description

  The Haub Environmental Law Distinguished Junior Scholar Award is presented annually to an emerging junior environmental law professor who exhibits scholarly excellence and promise at an early stage in his/her career. The Haub School invites the award recipient to present his/her recent scholarship to the Haub community. The Haub Environmental Law Faculty solicits nominations from law professors throughout the country and selects a recipient from that pool of nominations.

• Penn Fellows Program, 1970

• "Climate Crisis: Why is Greenwashing So Concerning?", Ripple Effect Podcast - 04/10/2023
• For this Wharton Course, the Outdoors is the Classroom, Poets & Quants For Undergrads - 04/26/2022
• EV Turning Point: Momentum Builds for U.S. Electric Vehicle Transition, Yale Environment 360 - 03/15/2021
• Environmentalism, Inc., JOTWELL - 08/01/2019
• Insuring Ecosystems to Ensure Climate Resilience, Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center - 07/22/2019
• A New Perspective on Some Familiar Corporate and Business Law Tools - 07/08/2019
• Podcast: The Law of Corporation as Environmental Law, Harvard Law School Environmental & Energy Law Program - 01/01/2019
• Uber crash sparks talk of tighter rules for self-driving cars, San Francisco Chronicle - 03/31/2018
• Faculty Competition Crowns 2018 Iron Prof, The Wharton School - 03/01/2018
• Autonomous Vehicle Bill Leaves Safety Gaps, The Regulatory Review - 09/25/2017
• Connecting Business Innovation to Policy Disruption, University of Oxford - 07/10/2017
• Precautionary Federalism (Guest Sarah Llight), Oral Argument (podcast) - 06/24/2016
• From Peerby to SnappCar: How Europe’s Sharing Economy Is Driven by Efficiency, KNOWLEDGE@WHARTON - 06/21/2016
• New Toxic Chemical Legislation Fails on Federalism, Penn Program on Regulation Blog - 06/09/2016
• Why the Worst Isn’t Over Yet for Volkswagen, KNOWLEDGE@WHARTON - 01/08/2016
• Reasons for Optimism in the Paris Agreement, Penn Program on Regulation - 12/24/2015
• Green Evolution: How Business Is Joining the Environmental Vanguard, Knowledge@Wharton - 12/10/2015
• Climate Change and National Security, Penn Program on Regulation - 12/07/2015
• Winning Hearts and Minds, The Magazine of the Green Economy - 10/13/2015 Description

  The military is setting an example as an unequivocal supporter of technologies and strategies that address energy, water and transportation efficiencies.

• What Shell’s Arctic Exit Means for Future Energy Exploration, KNOWLEDGE@WHARTON - 10/05/2015 Description

  Sarah Light and Lori Snyder Bennear on Shell’s Arctic Exit

• Not the Only Game in Town: The Complementary Roles of Public and Private Environmental Governance, PENN WHARTON Public Policy Initiative - 10/01/2015
• Will the U.S. Seize the High Ground in Curbing Emissions?, Knowledge@Wharton - 08/05/2015
• The New Insider Trading: Environmental Markets within the Firm, The CLS Blue Sky Blog - 05/19/2015
• Forum discusses potential impacts of military's energy initiatives, E&ENEWSPM - 04/10/2015
• Energy Resiliency & Earth Day, OEI News - 03/01/2015
• UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU…TO STOP DENYING CLIMATE CHANGE, onEarth - 11/01/2014 Description

  The military is planning for global warming. Why can’t lawmakers follow its charge?

   

• GREEN GO! – THE MILITARY’S SUSTAINABILITY MISSION, Lex Jotwell - 10/20/2014
• Drop and Give Me Efficiency: Can the Military Change American Minds on Climate?, CLIMATE CONFIDENTIAL - 08/20/2014
• The Surprising Role the Military Plays in Environmental Protection, Knowledge@Wharton - 07/29/2014
• Fracking: Do the Economics Justify the Risks?, KNOWLEDGE@WHARTON - 01/23/2014
• Penn Wharton PPI Takes on Fracking, Wharton Magazine - 01/07/2013

Knowledge @ Wharton

• Overwhelmed by Too Many Choices When Shopping? Wharton Retail Expert Weighs In, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/19/2024
• Michael Lee, Oatly North America’s EVP & Executive Creative Director, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/19/2024
• Why Anchor Institutions Are Vital to Local Economies, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/17/2024
• Is the American Dream of Homeownership Still Within Reach?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/17/2024
• Even Under Trump, AI Governance Is Here to Stay, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/17/2024
• 2024 Ripple Rewind (Part 2), Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/17/2024
• What Are the Best Countries of 2024?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/16/2024
• Your Pride Could Affect Your Workplace Reputation, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/12/2024
• Samantha Baker, VP of Commerce at theSkimm, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/12/2024
• NFL Stats & Analysis with Ben Solak, Knowledge @ Wharton - 12/11/2024