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Policy Clinic: Climate, Health & Food, Human Rights, and Trade (Harrison Institute)
Student Projects

Student Projects

Students work in four policy teams—climate, health/food, human rights, and trade. In this section, students have outlined each project in terms of client goals, objectives, and their personal role.

Trade team

Designing a carbon tax

Collaborators – Resources for the Future, Citizens Climate Lobby, and the Climate Leadership Council.
Goal – Combat climate change by building a consensus around a carbon tax that reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Objectives – 1. Design border adjustments to prevent companies from shifting production of energy intensive products and jobs to countries that lack a carbon tax.
2. Minimize double taxation (where one set of goods is taxed by multiple jurisdictions for the same carbon emissions).
3. Comply with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
4. Organize a working group to facilitate communication among organizations linked to politically diverse constituencies.
Student picture Sofia Panero – fall 2019/spring 2020
Sofia researched international proposals related to carbon measures and examined the benefits, potential deficiencies, and WTO compliance for each plan. During the spring semester, she is working on how a carbon tax can comply with trade rules that apply to customs unions and free trade agreements.
Student picture Sam Pickerill – fall 2019
Sam analyzed how a carbon tax can comply with treaties that prohibit double taxation. First, he analyzed the seven carbon tax proposals introduced in the 116th Congress and categorized each proposal along criteria developed by project collaborators. Then he analyzed the relative benefits and critiques of carbon tax designs that apply a border tax adjustment (BTA) on both imports and exports, as compared to designs that apply a BTA only on imports.
Student picture Alex Keyser – fall 2019/spring 2020
Alex analyzed proposals for creating a forum for international coordination of border adjustments for a carbon tax to determine whether they comply with the rules of the World Trade Organization. In the spring, he is analyzing and drafting options for countries to waive dispute settlement rights at the WTO.
Student picture Greg Hawkins – fall 2019/spring 2020
Greg first analyzed the arguments for and against the modification of border tax adjustments in a federal carbon tax. He focused on WTO compatibility and administrative feasibility, as well as potential impact on revenue and trade flows. Greg’s second project looked at the potential for international coordination across different carbon pricing regimes with the same core considerations in mind.

Reform of investor-state dispute settlement

Client – Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law in the Americas (CAROLA at Georgetown Law) and  Columbia University’s Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI).
Goal – Reform over 3,000 international investment treaties in ways that:
1. Protect governments’ ability to regulate in the public interest,
2. Create a multilateral framework for reform that provides flexibility for smaller governments to collaborate, and
3. Promote consistency with the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Objective – Develop a legal framework that countries can use to amend existing investment treaties to better align with sustainable development.
Student picture Christina Welch – fall 2019/spring 2020
Christina examined the role of sustainable development in deliberations of Working Group III (WGIII) within the UN Commission on International Trade Law. In spite of WGIII’s mandate to focus on procedural reforms to the investor-state dispute settlement, she found that many delegates expressed an interest in incorporating sustainable development into the investment regime. In the spring, she will focus on drafting a proposal for a Framework Convention on Sustainable Investment.
Student Picture James Carey – fall 2019/spring 2020
James analyzed international investment treaties and dispute settlement proceedings. His analysis identifies common ground for reform in the current investment system. James evaluated how different models being considered by the international community meet the needs of reform and showed what those models look like when applied to investment disputes. In the spring, James will continue to analyze options on the menu of reform, focusing on elements of a Framework Convention.

Health and food team

Purchasing healthier food in schools

Clients – Office of the State Superintendent of Education for Washington, D.C.
Goals – Help D.C. public schools and public charter schools contract for healthy and sustainable foods in compliance with regulations governing the National School Lunch Program and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.
Objectives– 1. Draft contract templates and guidance memos that school officials can use to improve their school food contracts. 2. Train school officials.
Student picture Ezra Tanen – fall 2019/spring 2020
Ezra met with school officials to understand the improvements they want to implement in their food purchasing. He then drafted contract templates and guidance on, for example, how schools could legally pool their resources to jointly contract with school-food vendors, and how schools could legally supplement school meals with school garden produce. In the spring, he will organize training workshops and edit the legal guidance based on that experience.

University food purchasing

Collaborators – Kalmanovitz Initiative on Labor and the Working Poor and sustainability staff at other universities.
Goals – Secure the safety, health, and labor rights of workers in the university’s food supply chain. The initial focus is on poultry, the leading source of protein on campuses.
Objectives – 1. Develop a code of conduct that addresses the abuse of workers in the supply chains of university food-service contractors.
2. Establish a working group of universities to combine their purchasing power to shift industry practices.
Student picture Ashley Lee – fall 2019/spring 2020
Ashley surveyed supplier and vendor codes of conduct from universities, companies, and municipalities. She then extracted factors to consider in the development of a code of conduct. In the Spring, Ashley will survey abuses that poultry workers face, outline a code of conduct, and meet with collaborators from other universities to discuss a shared approach to work with food-service contractors.

Oral health for special-needs children

Collaborators – Georgetown Health Justice Alliance and the George Richmond Foundation.
Goal – Improve access to oral health services for low-income families, particularly those who have children with special needs (e.g., physical disabilities, autism, etc.).
Objectives – 1. Create incentives for dentists in D.C. to treat adolescents with special needs.
2. Expand the scope of practice for dental hygienists in D.C.
Student picture Maya Desai – fall 2019/spring 2020
Maya analyzed the age-related transitions of adolescents with special health care needs (ASHCN) under the Medicaid program in D.C. She developed policy solutions to create incentives and train general dentists to treat ASHCN. In the spring, Maya will reach out to collaborators in order to determine which policy solutions are the most feasible, effective, and efficient and create a strategy for making policy change.
Student picture Sammi Weiner – fall 2019/spring 2020
Sammi identified ways to expand the scope of practice for dental hygienists within D.C. as an important policy to increase access to care. To that end, she drafted legislation to present to the D.C. Council. In the spring, Sammi will reach out to collaborators who will play advocacy roles in support of the legislation and try to get traction for the bill.

Human rights team

Worker rights in the 2026 FIFA World Cup

Collaborators – AFL-CIO, Human Rights Watch, Sport and Rights Alliance, Centre for Sports and Human Rights, International Labor Rights Forum, International Trade Union Confederation, and others.
Goal – In response to the human rights abuses and worker deaths in Qatar during preparation for the 2022 World Cup, FIFA required bidding countries for the 2026 World Cup to submit human rights strategies with their bids. The Harrison Institute is working with a coalition of labor and human rights organizations to ensure that FIFA and the United Bid, which is composed of the United States, Mexico, and Canada, implement their human rights strategy.
Objectives – 1. Assess the risk of human rights abuses for workers in FIFA’s supply chains (e.g., construction, hotels, food service, transportation, electronics, and licensed apparel).
2. Develop a scorecard to compare the capacity of potential host cities to secure human rights. 3. Frame a policy menu to support a national advocacy campaign to strengthen human rights from the bottom-up.
Student picture Katie Rumer – fall 2019
Katie assessed the risk of human rights abuses in the hotel industry. This included housekeeping staff within U.S. hotels and the imported textiles upon which hotels depend for bed, bath, and room furnishings. Her analysis shows that worker abuses are rife in both domestic and global supply chains. Katie also analyzed the risk that local laws that provide an arbitration process to resolve worker complaints would be preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act.
Student picture Mat McKenna – fall 2019/spring 2020
Mat assessed the risk of human rights abuses in the food industry, domestically and globally. Like Katie, he found extensive evidence of harms to workers, locally and globally. He also researched the interaction of federal, state, and local law in occupational safety and health to inform the development of a scorecard to evaluate potential host cities’ worker protections. In the spring, he will analyze the risk that local policies might be preempted by federal or state law, and he will continue analysis to support the development of a robust scorecard.

Climate team

Adapting to coastal flooding

Clients – Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) and the Eastern Shore Climate Adaptation Partnership (ESCAP), a collaborative of local governments.
Goals – Help the Eastern Shore prepare for the impacts of climate change and work toward ESLC’s goal of making it the most resilient rural region.
Objectives – 1. Regional plan – Identify common resilience objectives across six counties and two municipalities as a first step towards developing a regional strategy to prepare for the impacts of climate change.
2. Adapt roads to flooding – Identify legal options for local governments to address repetitive road flooding.
Student picture Linn Bumpers – fall 2019
Linn worked with ESLC and ESCAP to identify adaptation goals and priorities among counties and municipalities on the Eastern Shore. She surveyed local plans and vulnerability studies that address climate risks and impacts across ESCAP communities, and interviewed representatives from each jurisdiction. Linn also analyzed the legal obligations of state and local governments in Maryland to maintain roads that are repeatedly flooded due to sea-level rise and extreme precipitation.

Climate equity – affordable housing

Clients – Georgetown Climate Center (“GCC”).
Goal – Ensure that tools used by city governments to prepare for the impacts of climate change (e.g., heat, flooding) are distributed equitably across all communities.
Objectives – Identify and analyze planning, regulatory, and funding tools that increase the climate-resilience of urban housing stock:
1. Preserve existing affordable housing;
2. Develop new affordable housing; and
3. Avoid accelerating displacement and gentrification of existing communities.
Student picture Alex Votaw – fall 2019/spring 2020
Alex is researching legal and policy initiatives that enable cities to help create and preserve climate-resilient affordable housing. She is researching and developing national case studies that demonstrate local government solutions at the intersection of equity, climate resilience, and affordable housing. Her research will be featured in the Georgetown Climate Center’s forthcoming online toolkit on legal and policy tools for equitable adaptation in U.S. cities.