Caroline Cecot

Caroline Cecot specializes in environmental law and policy, with a particular focus on regulatory design and the use of cost-benefit analysis in agency decisionmaking. Her work draws on her expertise in law and economics to explore questions of institutional authority, equity, and efficiency in environmental regulation. She teaches environmental law, torts, administrative law, and a seminar on environmental law and economics.

Professor Cecot’s scholarship has appeared in both law reviews and peer-reviewed journals, including the Duke Law Journal, Vanderbilt Law Review, American Law and Economics Review, and Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. She is a co-author of the casebook Environmental Law and Policy, 5th ed. (Foundation Press, 2024) (with Richard L. Revesz, Michael A. Livermore, and Jayni Foley Hein). Her work has been recognized twice by the Environmental Law Institute, including one article named a top 20 environmental law article of the year and another that received both top 20 honors and the Honorable Mention for best article of the year.

Professor Cecot is a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and the President of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis. She has also served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board panel reviewing the agency’s guidelines for economic analysis.

Before joining GW Law, she was a Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where she was twice elected by the graduating class to serve as the faculty speaker at commencement. She clerked for the Honorable Raymond J. Lohier Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and was a Legal Fellow at the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU School of Law.

She holds a JD and a PhD in law and economics from Vanderbilt University and an AB degree, magna cum laude, in economics from Harvard University. During her graduate studies, she received the Robert F. Jackson Prize and the Archie B. Martin Memorial Prize for academic excellence, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and served as Senior Articles Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review.

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