Biography
Amy L. Stein is a nationally recognized for her research on energy policy, particularly with respect to federalism, the regulatory process and administrative law. Amy focuses her scholarship on the intersection of energy and environmental law within administrative and federalism frameworks, but also explores implications of legal doctrines as applied to artificial intelligence. She is an associate dean for curriculum and Cone Wagner Professor of Law.
Areas of Expertise (14)
Renewable Energy Law
Sustainability and Generative AI
Sustainability
Renewable Energy
Environmental Law
Electric Grid Reliability
Climate Change
Artificial Intelligence
Distributed Energy
Energy
Federalism
States Rights
Tenth Amendment
Energy Law
Articles (3)
Energy Emergencies
Northwestern University Law ReviewAmy L. Stein
2020-12-29
Emergency powers are essential to the proper functioning of the government. Emergencies demand swift and decisive action; yet, our system of government also values deliberation and procedures. To enable such agility in a system fraught with bureaucracy, Congress frequently delegates unilateral statutory emergency powers directly to its most nimble actor: the President. The powers Congress delegates to the President are vast and varied, and often sacrifice procedural requirements in favor of expediency. Most scholars and policymakers have come to terms with this tradeoff, assuming that the need to respond quickly is outweighed by any loss of accountability. This article challenges this long-standing assumption and is skeptical of the zero-sum framework that suggests accountability and expediency cannot coexist in statutory emergency delegations.
Artificial Intelligence and Climate Change
Yale Journal on RegulationAmy L. Stein
2020-09-15
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to embed itself in our daily lives, many focus on the threats it poses to privacy, security, due process, and democracy itself. But beyond these legitimate concerns, AI promises to optimize activities, increase efficiency, and enhance the accuracy and efficacy of the many aspects of society relying on predictions and likelihoods. In short, its most promising applications may come, not from uses affecting civil liberties and the social fabric of our society, but from those particularly complex technical problems lying beyond our ready human capacity. Climate change is one such complex problem, requiring fundamental changes to our transportation, agricultural, building, and energy sectors.
A Statutory National Security President
Florida Law ReviewAmy L. Stein
2019-02-10
Not all presidential power to address national security threats stems from the Constitution. Some presidential national security powers stem from statute, creating complicated questions about the limits of these powers delegated to the President by Congress. Scholars who have explored ways to achieve the proper balance between responsiveness and accountability have generally focused on the proper degree of deference that courts should provide to the President interpreting statutory provisions, with little confidence in the utility and efficacy of statutory constraints. This article counters this narrative by arguing that a key to achieving this balance may lie in such constraints.