Thesis Title

'High-Stakes Influencers: How Amicus Briefs Shape Judicial Decision-Making in U.S. Climate Litigation'

Supervisors

Dr Joana Setzer (Grantham Research Institute) and Dr Jan Zglinski (Law)

Research Interests

Climate litigation, amicus briefs, climate justice, lobbying

Kaia Turowski is a PhD student in Law at LSE. She is the first student to undergo a cross-departmental dissertation with the Law School and LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Law.

Kaia completed a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Environmental Studies and Political Science at Reed College in the USA before undertaking a Masters in Environmental, Natural Resources and Energy Law at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. There, she was a research assistant for Dr. Lisa Benjamin. Kaia has been project managing Brown University’s Climate Social Science Network Working Group on climate-washing and net-zero commitments, which is comprised of scholars from various institutions internationally that are committed to researching climate law and politics. She is also a research assistant for Dr. Noah Walker-Crawford at the Grantham Research Insitute. 

Affiliations / Memberships

Climate Social Science Network, Brown University

Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics

Awards / Scholarships

Brown University Grant for Dissertation Research (2024)

LSE Department of Law Studentship (2023-2027)

London Arts & Humanities Research Council Research Grant (2023)

European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference Grant (2023)

Northwestern School of Law Environmental Leadership Award (2021-2022)

Reed College Commendation for Excellence for Academic Performance (2018-2019)