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Our Environmental Law program is ranked #4 among public law schools and #12 among all law schools in U.S. News & World Report, and rated A+ by PreLaw Magazine.

Named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and conservationist, the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources & the Environment offers students one of the top environmental and natural resources law programs in the United States. We also offer unparalleled access to the mountains, rivers, and desert landscapes that inspire us, and many students, to pursue environmental law.

Modern society has the power to profoundly alter our natural surroundings. From the carbon emissions of our fossil fuel-dependent economy to fragmentation of cultural and ecological landscapes through development, to conflicts over allocating scarce natural resources: we promote understanding of the relationship between environmental laws and social actions, the tradeoffs that we face in allocating scarce resources, and the opportunities to develop legal and policy institutions that can foster a more just, diverse, and equitable future.

The Stegner Center offers students a variety of educational opportunities, including a JD Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, an LLM degree, numerous substantive law courses, an Environmental Dispute Resolution Program, a Law & Policy Program, and a variety of public events and speakers at the College of Law.

The Stegner Center boasts a talented and diverse team of faculty members who are working to shape environmental law and policy, and who are committed to involving students in that work. Our faculty members serve on local and national NGO boards and advisory committees, collaborate with state and federal government officials to improve environmental policies, and they advocate in the courtroom and legislative chambers.

At the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources & the Environment, we believe that well-conceived and carefully implemented laws and policies are the cornerstones of a just and equitable society, and we invite you to join us in that pursuit.

LATEST STEGNER CENTER NEWS


Thinking beyond the law: Environmental Justice Clinic

Mar 04, 2024

A new clinic at the University of Utah’s S. J. Quinney School of Law is training students to think beyond the law when it comes to matters of environmental justice.

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Register now for the annual Wallace Stegner Symposium, held March 14-15, 2024

Mar 03, 2024

At the 2024 Wallace Stegner Symposium held March 14-15—convened by the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law’s Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment—experts from a wide range of disciplines will explore the challenges of the global transition to carbon-neutral energy, along with related sustainability, environmental, and human health concerns.

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Great Salt Lake and the law: Great Salt Lake Project wades through murky policy questions and legislation

Mar 02, 2024

In response to the relentless decline of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, several University of Utah legal scholars have launched a campaign to advise the public and policymakers on ways to avert the lake’s ecological collapse, along with a slew of economic and environmental consequences.

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Commitment: A core conflict competency

Mar 01, 2024

Over the past year, I have published a series of blogs exploring the key skills that are necessary for making conflict productive, or what I call the core “conflict competencies.” Prior blogs have explored the conflict competencies of calm, curiosity, compassion, creativity, courage, and communication. In this blog, I want to explore one final core conflict competency: commitment.

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