Ryan Rowberry, Janice C. Griffith Chair in Law and co-director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth.
A leading voice in environmental law, legal history and interdisciplinary research, Professor Ryan Rowberry, co-director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth, continues to bridge past and present legal systems to solve pressing global challenges.
He co-authored “Transforming Disaster Risk Reduction with AI and Big Data,” published in WIREs Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery which examines how artificial intelligence (AI) could revolutionize the way we prepare for and respond to disasters. The article offers a framework for interdisciplinary collaboration to create adaptive law systems based on AI integration of knowledge from environmental and social sciences to ensure AI tools are used safely, fairly and transparently.
“Preparing for and responding to disasters requires a holistic, integrated community effort—combining the skills and expertise of AI technology, engineers, emergency officials, religious organizations, lawyers, planners, individual neighborhoods and more,” said Rowberry, the Janice C. Griffith Chair in Law. “If we can figure out how to optimize collaboration at the local level to handle disaster preparation and response, our communities will be more resilient, equitable and equipped to bounce forward after a disaster event.”
WIREs Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery
Rowberry’s expertise in natural resources and environmental law continues to make him a go-to voice in major policy conversations across the state and region. He was interviewed by news outlets including NPR about a controversial mining project near a national wildlife refuge, called on to explain the legal stakes of Georgia lifting its decade-long moratorium on farm water wells amid the ongoing tri-state water wars, and quoted in coverage of the legal challenges tied to groundwater permits for Hyundai’s $7.6 billion Metaplant.
Across these issues, Rowberry offered clear insight into the legal frameworks behind conservation, water rights and government oversight—highlighting the need for stronger enforcement, transparency and long-term planning in managing shared environmental resources.
Adding to an already distinguished year, Rowberry returned to his alma mater, Harvard Law School, to present original research at a legal history symposium. His paper, “The Papal Constitution Execrabilis (1317) and Clerical Justices in the English Royal Courts,” dives into how a medieval papal decree shed light on the financial and political ties between medieval clerical judges in the King’s Bench and Common Bench, church officials and lay leaders. Execrabilis permanently reshaped judicial roles and church-state dynamics in the common-law legal system.
“Pope John XII’s decree, l Execrabilis, dramatically affected the income streams available to clerical justices in the England’s central royal courts. Perhaps even more importantly, it also diminished the influence that English churchmen could wield on clerical justices in the common-law courts, aiding a process that was already underway—the complete and irrevocable removal of clerics from judicial posts in of the common-law judiciary by the 1330s,” Rowberry said.
Written by Stacey Evans (B.A. '02)