University of Utah : S.J. Quinney College of Law

Robert Adler

James I. Farr Chair in Law
Professor of Law

As the James I. Farr Chair in Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, Robert Adler’s goal is “to stimulate more interdisciplinary work in this increasingly global world … [and] to prepare students for that world" in an environment that changes almost continuously, and which demands skills that go far beyond what has been traditionally taught in law schools.” As a scholar, Adler urges a broader, more holistic approach to the restoration and protection of aquatic and other ecosystems than is used in traditional environmental laws alone, which focus on discrete kinds of environmental harm. After completing a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University (1977) and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center (1980 cum laude), Adler practiced environmental law for 15 years. He has published dozens of articles and reports in law, policy and science journals including Vanderbilt Law Review, Harvard Environmental Law Review, Utah Law Review, and George Washington Law Review.  He has authored or co-authored a book on the history and impact of the Clean Water Act, an environmental law casebook ( Environmental Law: A Conceptual and Pragmatic Approach (with David Driesen, Aspen Publishers, 2007) and Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems: A Troubled Sense of Immensity (Island Press, 2007). He regularly teaches courses in environmental law and water law, and recently launched a new environmental clinic in cooperation with Western Resource Advocates.  Adler loves to spend time in Utah’s outdoors, and in 2005 and 2008 completed the Wasatch Front 100-mile trail race through Utah’s beautiful Wasatch Mountains.

Scholarship Highlights

Adler, Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems: A Troubled Sense of Immensity (Island Press, 2007)

Adler and Driesen, Environmental Law: A Conceptual and Functional Approach (Aspen Publishers, 2007).

Adler et al., The Clean Water Act -- Twenty Years Later (Island Press, September, 1993, 320 pp.) (Principal Author)

Adler, The Law at the Water's Edge: Limits to "Ownership" of Aquatic Ecosystems, in Wet Growth: Should Water Law Control Land Use? (Tony Arnold, ed., Environmental Law Institute, 2005)

Adler, "The Supreme Court and Ecosystems: Environmental Science in Environmental Law," 27 Vermont Law Review 249-369 (2003)

Adler, "The Two Lost Books in the Water Quality Trilogy: The Elusive Objectives of 'Physical and Biological Integrity,'" 33 Environmental Law 29-77 (2003) (selected as one of the thirty best environmental or land use law review articles published in 2003)

Adler and Straube, "Watersheds and the Integration of U.S. Water Law and Policy: Bridging the Great Divides," 25 William & Mary Environmental Law Review 1-68 (2000)

Adler, "Integrated Approaches to the Water Quality Problem: Lessons from the Clean Air Act," 23 Harvard Environmental Law Review 203-95 (1999) (selected as one of the thirty best environmental or land use law review articles published in 1999)

Adler, "Toward Comprehensive Watershed Restoration and Protection for Great Salt Lake," 1999 Utah Law Review 99-204 (1999)

Adler, "Unfunded Federal Mandates and Fiscal Federalism: A Critique," 50 Vanderbilt Law Review 1137-1256 (1997)

Adler, "Addressing Barriers to Watershed Protection," 25 Environmental Law 973-1106 (1995)

Adler and Lord, "Environmental Crimes: Raising the Stakes," 59 George Washington Law Review 781-861 (April 1991) (reprinted in 23 Land Use and Environment Law Review as one of 15 best environmental law review articles published in 1991)