In December, Andrew F. Tuch, Professor of Law, presented his paper “Green Gatekeepers” at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan’s national research academy.
“Green Gatekeepers” examines the vital role of third-party certifiers in an era of pervasive green claims, where products are labeled “recycled” or “carbon neutral” and investments are branded as “ESG.” These third-party certifiers set and verify green standards, seeking to ensure that environmental claims reflect reality rather than misleading marketing. The paper grounds its analysis in a close study of five categories of prominent green gatekeepers—in areas including carbon offsets, gas sourcing, appliance efficiency, and net-zero certifications—and a hand-coded database of over 450 gatekeepers across 25 industries.
Professor Tuch presented “Green Gatekeepers” at the Institutum Iurisprudentiae in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences at Academia Sinica. The paper, coauthored with Professor Luca Enriques (University of Oxford) and Professor Alessandro Romano (Bocconi University) was recently awarded the 2024 Berkeley—European Corporate Governance Institute Best Paper Award and profiled on the European Corporate Governance Institute Blog, the Oxford Business Law Blog, and the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog.
Professor Tuch is an expert in corporate and securities law. His work has appeared in multiple law reviews, peer-reviewed journals, and edited volumes. Two of his articles have been selected in a national poll of scholars as among the Top Ten Corporate and Securities articles in their respective years.