Chris Elmendorf, Professor
A 2001 graduate of the Yale Law School, Chris Elmendorf came to Davis following a clerkship with Judge Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Professor Elmendorf's current research concerns the roles that ongoing advisory bodies can play in fostering governmental accountability and sustaining the foundational commitments of liberal democracy. In "Representation Reinforcement Through Advisory Commissions: The Case of Election Law," 80 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1366 (2005), he examines advisory commissions as a source of political process reforms. His fourthcoming article, "Advisory Counterparts to Constitutional Courts," 56 Duke L.J. (2006), traces the emergence in many nations of permanent investigatory and advice-giving bodies with the kinds of democracy-reinforcing, rights-safeguarding, and minority-protecting missions that legal scholars more typically ascribe to constitutional courts.
On another front, Professor Elmendorf has long been interested in how property institutions may support (or retard) the stewardship of ecological resources. He worked on private lands conservation prior to attending law school and has published in this area.
Law Clerk, Judge Guido Calabresi, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 2002-2003;
Joint Research Fellow, National Wildlife Federation & Political Economy Research Center, 2001-2002.
Christopher S. Elmendorf, Securing Ecological Investments on Other People’s Land: A Transaction-Costs Perspective, 44 NAT. RESOURCES J. 529 (2004).
Christopher S. Elmendorf, Ideas, Incentives, Gifts, and Governance: Toward Conservation Stewardship of Private Land, In Cultural and Psychological Perspective, 2003 U.ILL. L. REV. 423.
Christopher S. Elmendorf, Note, State Courts, Citizen Suits, and the Enforcement of Federal Environmental Law by Non-Article III Plaintiffs, 110 YALE L. J. 1003 (2001).