Academia

Upcoming Regulatory Takings Conference 2016

Nation’s Top Annual Takings Event Set for November 4th in New Orleans

One of the most important issues in modern environmental law and policy is the extent to which constitutionally-protected property rights limit environmental regulatory programs at the federal, state and local levels.  Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court has focused more attention on this question over the last four decades than any other aspect of modern environmental …

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Beyond Administrative Law

Law students need to know about more than administrative procedure and judicial review.

Since the days of Felix Frankfurter, the Administrative Law course has been a staple of American law schools.  It’s a great course, but it’s limited.  The same is true of most of the courses on legislation and regulation in the first year, which also focus on how courts interpret statutes and how they review administrative …

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Citations for environmental and energy law professors

The most-cited environmental and energy law professors in 2010-2014

Brian Leiter at Chicago is doing one of his occasional series identifying the top cited legal scholars in a range of substantive areas.  One list he has done covers administrative and environmental scholars – however, his list includes a number of top administrative law scholars who do not focus on environmental and energy law.  I …

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UCLA Law and Berkeley Law Are Recognized Among Top Five Environmental Law Programs in New U.S. News Rankings

Environmental Law Programs Thrive in California’s Public Universities

I’m pleased to report that the environmental law programs at both UCLA Law and Berkeley Law are among the top five in the country, according to the new U.S. News and World Report law school specialty ranking for this year.  Berkeley is ranked #4, and UCLA is ranked #5.  (Technically, there are six top-five schools, …

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500 Points of Light

How do law schools promote environmental law? Let me count the ways.

My favorite Sesame Street character is the Count.*  Like him, “I love to count Things.”  A list of law school programs in environment and energy law, recently compiled by Ed Richards at LSU,  gave me the opportunity to do just that.  Here are some of the things that I counted: 39 environmental law clinics 40 LLM …

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James Salzman of Emmett Institute Appointed to U.S. National Drinking Water Advisory Council

Professor James Salzman of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment has been appointed to the U.S. National Drinking Water Advisory Council, a federal advisory committee that supports the Environmental Protection Agency in its duties and responsibilities to the national drinking water program. Professor Salzman is the author of “Drinking Water: A History” …

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That Takes the Prize!

National Science & Technology Medals for Renewable Energy Research

The White House announced the names of the scientists and engineers who will be receiving National Medals next year.  I was very pleased to see that one of the winners of the National Medal of Science is Paul Alivisatos from Berkeley. Dr. Alivisatos is a chemistry professor who is also Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory …

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How do we move past the yuck factor in potable water reuse?

This post draws on two recently published articles (here and here) by an international group of collaborators: Christian Binz, Sasha Harris-Lovett, Bernhard Truffer, David Sedlak, and myself, courtesy of the ReNUWIt program.   Potable water reuse is increasingly seen as a potential way to help ease urban water supply challenges. Potable reuse is as it sounds …

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Guest Blogger Kate Konschnik: The Debate about EPA’s Authority to Regulate Carbon Pollution is a Lot of Things – But Not These Things

Kate Konschnik is the Director of Harvard Law School’s Environmental Policy Initiative. The views expressed in this blog post are her own.

Clean Power Plan challengers have asked the D.C. Circuit to stay the rule pending litigation.  Today, industry and environmental groups supporting EPA will file their oppositions to this request.  The stay motions included the charge that EPA may not use Section 111(d) at all to curb pollution from existing power plants.  Dan Farber and I …

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What Is An Externality?

And Could the Leading Property Text Have Gotten It Wrong?

The idea of an externality is fundamental to environmental law and policy — and indeed, to just about any aspect of the common law (at least outside criminal law, and maybe even there). When I teach first-year Property law, I have to introduce the concept pretty early on in the course, as I imagine most …

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