About
About
Arden Rowell’s work explores the frontier of regulation and environmental law, studying how legal systems confront extreme risks and shape human decision-making when outcomes are uncertain. Rowell is the co-author of The Psychology of Environmental Law (NYU Press, 2021), A Guide to U.S. Environmental Law (California Press, 2021) and A Guide to EU Environmental Law (California Press, 2021), and has published over forty peer- and law-review articles and book chapters, which have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and The University of Chicago Law Review to Science and Progress in Nuclear Energy. She authored an analysis for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine on the regulation of inhalation hazards; has been named to the Fulbright Specialist roster for her work on risk regulation, law and behavior, and environmental law and policy; and has been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for her interdisciplinary work on regulating risk and technology.
Drawing on ideas from law, science, engineering, the arts, and the social sciences, Rowell works collaboratively across disciplines to understand how people and institutions navigate risk and uncertainty. Her work bridges behavioral analysis, empirical research, and normative theory, and has informed ongoing discussions of regulatory policy in the United States and abroad.
Rowell has been a visiting professor at Duke Law School and Harvard Law School and a visiting researcher at Oxford University, and completed a federal detail at the National Center for Environmental Economics at the Environmental Protection Agency. At Illinois, Rowell is an affiliate of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, the Institute for Government and Public Affairs, the European Union Center, and the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program. In 2015 she was named a University Scholar through a program meant to recognize the university’s “very best teachers and scholars.”
Before joining the Illinois faculty in 2010, Rowell was a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School, from which she also received her J.D. After law school, Professor Rowell practiced at Perkins Coie LLP in Seattle. She has a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology/archaeology, which she earned from the University of Washington at the age of 18. Before law school, she worked as an encyclopedia entry writer and as a video game tester.
Education
JD University of Chicago Law School
BA University of Washington
Areas of Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Administrative Law
Environmental Law and Conservation
Psychology and Law
Tort Law
Publications
Selected Publications
Arden Rowell, “Psychological Approaches to Valuations of Climate Loss and Damage,” in Reparations for Climate Change: The Successes and Limits of Litigation (eds. Helen Keller & Corina Heri) (forthcoming Sui Generis, 2025).
Arden Rowell and Kenworthey Bilz, “Incorporating Psychology,” 42 The Environmental Forum 24-31 (Environmental Law Institute) (January-February 2025).
Josephine van Zeben & Arden Rowell, “Environmental Law Beyond Emergencies: Lessons from the Future,” in Future Proofing Law in a Time of Environmental Emergency (eds. Harro van Asselt, Seita Vesa, & Kaisa Huhta) (IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Series, Edward Elgar Press, 2025).
Arden Rowell, Indoor Environmental Law, 54 Environmental Law 327-379 (2024).
Arden Rowell, Book Review: Dawn at Mineral King Valley: The Sierra Club, The Disney Company, and the Rise of Environmental Law by Daniel Selmi, 58 Oryx135-136 (2024).
Arden Rowell, Kenworthey Bilz, and Howard Li, “Environmental Law and Psychology,” in Handbook in Law and Psychology 306-326 (ed. Rebecca Hollander-Blumoff) (Edward Elgar Press, 2024).
Lori Hoetger & Arden Rowell, “The Law and Psychology of Environmental Crime,” in The Research Handbook in Environmental Crime and Environmental Enforcement 68-87 (ed. Iina Sahramäki & Susan Smith) (Edward Elgar Press 2024).
John Beal, Pegah Farshadmanesh, Tatsuya Sakurahara, Seyed Reihani, Ernie Kee, Arden Rowell, Fatma Yilmaz, Zahra Mohaghegh, Modeling Interconnections of Safety and Financial Performance of Nuclear Power Plants, Part 1: Categorical Review and Theoretical Bases, 171 Progress in Nuclear Energy 105123 (2024) (peer-reviewed).
John Beal, Tatsuya Sakurahara, Pegah Farshadmanesh, Seyed Reihani, Ernie Kee, Arden Rowell, Fatma Yilmaz, Zahra Mohaghegh, Modeling Interconnections of Safety and Financial Performance of Nuclear Power Plants, Part 2: Methodological Developments and Case Study, 171 Progress in Nuclear Energy 105100 (2024) (peer-reviewed).
Arden Rowell, “Improving Outer Space,” in The Philosophy of Outer Space (eds. Marcello di Paola and Mirko Garasic) (Routledge, 2023).
Arden Rowell, “The Regulatory Landscape of Respiratory Protection,” in National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, Frameworks for Protecting Workers and the Public from Inhalation Hazards 447-528 (2022).
Arden Rowell and Kenworthey Bilz, The Psychology of Pollution Control, 54 Arizona State Law Journal 899-938 (2022) (symposium).
Arden Rowell, Ethical Choices Inside Regulatory Cost-Benefit Analysis, 20 Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy 693-714 (2022) (symposium).
Arden Rowell & Kenworthey Bilz, The Psychology of Environmental Law (NYU Press, 2021).
Arden Rowell & Josephine van Zeben, A Guide to U.S. Environmental Law (University of California Press, 2021).
Arden Rowell, Quantitative Valuation in Environmental Law, 96 Notre Dame Law Review 1539-1558 (2021) (symposium).
Josephine van Zeben & Arden Rowell, A Guide to EU Environmental Law (University of California Press, 2021).
Colleen Murphy and Arden Rowell, “Risk and Autonomy: A Review of John Oberdiek’s Imposing Risk,” 18 Journal of Moral Philosophy 103-107 (2021).
Arden Rowell, Regulating Best-Case Scenarios, 50 Environmental Law 1105-1172 (2021).
See All PublicationsCourses
Courses
Administrative Law
Environmental Law and Policy
Law, Behavior & Social Science
Valuation
News
- Rowell co-authors editorial on nuclear regulation (Nuclear Newswire, November 21, 2025)