Professor Bob Adler continues to serve as dean of the S.J. Quinney College of Law, and is particularly proud that National Jurist named the College of Law the second “greenest” law school in the country based on a combination of the sustainability features of our LEED Platinum building, our efforts to promote sustainable practices among the law school community, our very rich curriculum in environmental and natural resources law, and all of the programs and activities sponsored by the Stegner Center. Bob still has some time for substantive work. He continues to teach Water Law this semester, and along with co-authors Robin Craig and Noah Hall, is working on the second edition of their casebook “Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public Rights, and Environmental Protections.” He also published a chapter on “Climate Change and Water Law in Agriculture” in the Research Handbook on Climate and Agricultural Law, co-edited by Mary Jane Angelo and Anel du Plessis. He spoke on climate change adaptation and water law at this summer’s Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Natural Resources Law Teacher’s Institute, and was on the closing commentary panel at the University of Colorado’s Colorado River conference in June. Bob will be taking a one-semester research leave during spring semester 2018, and among other things, he and his wife (Michele Straube) will be visiting their daughter in New Zealand, who is in graduate school at the University of Otago studying science communication – something we need more of in this country. During his leave, he will be working on a series of two articles critiquing the legal philosophies underlying the arguments of “property rights ranchers” to the use of public lands, and will begin work on a book project.
James I. Farr Presidential Endowed Professor of Law Robin K. Craig spent much of the summer of 2017 in Scandinavia. In June, she gave the keynote address, entitled, “Resilience Thinking and Marine Fisheries in the Anthropocene: Time to Transition?” at the University of Tromso’s and Pace University School of Law’s co-sponsored conference, Natural Marine Resource Management in a Changing Climate, in Tromso, Norway–incidentally catching the midnight sun above the Arctic Circle. In August, she both chaired an interdisciplinary session on incorporating resilience theory into law and spoke on “Narrating Climate Change as the Trickster to Promote Resilience Theory in the Anthropocene” at the Resilience 2017 conference in Stockholm, Sweden, followed immediately in early September by a talk on “Climate Change and the Incorporation of Resilience Theory into Adaptive Water Governance” at the European Environmental Law Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark. In-between, Craig also spoke at the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation’s first-ever law professors’ workshop at its Annual Institute in July in Santa Fe, NM, for which she also serves as Co-Chair of the Law Professors’ Committee. For Fall 2017, Craig has received a Writing Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation and will be spending four weeks in October and November at the Bellagio Center on Lake Como, Italy, working on her new book project on re-valuing the oceans. While she is there, Kansas University Press will publish her book with Melinda Harm Benson, The End of Sustainability: Resilience and the Future of Environmental Governance in the Anthropocene, https://www.amazon.com/End-Sustainability-Resilience-Environmental-Anthropocene/dp/070062516X. Otherwise, Craig has been giving presentations on water law to Utah judges; serving on the initial editorial board of the University of California’s Case Studies on the Environment; helping to organize the American Bar Association Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources’ Spring 2018 environmental law conference in Orlando, Florida; serving as Chair of the Association of American Law School’s Environmental Law Section; and working as part of the World Bank’s Joint Technical-Legal Peer Review Group to advise the refinement and ongoing development of a global dataset on water law and agriculture under the World Bank’s Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) project. She has also published Water Law: Concepts and Insights with Dean Bob Adler and their Colleague Noah Hall in addition to numerous interdisciplinary articles and book chapters, and continues to serve as editor of West’s Environmental Law Statutes. Craig’s scholarship received several forms of recognition in 2017 besides the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, including the Alta Sustainability Leadership Award in Research and CelebrateU Research recognition.
Professor and Assistant Dean Lincoln Davies continues to work actively in the area of energy law and policy. He published three articles over the last year: Climate Regulation of the Electricity Industry: A Comparative View from Australia, Great Britain, South Korea, and the United States, 13 South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business 109 (2017) (with Crossley, Connor, Park, and Shaw-Hughes); Making Sense of the Rapidly Evolving Legal Landscape of Solar Energy Support Regimes, 6 KLRI Journal of Law & Legislation 81 (2016); and Emerging Shadows in National Solar Policy? Nevada’s Net Metering Transition in Context, 30 Electricity Journal 33 (Jan.-Feb. 2017) (with Carley). In addition, with Sanya Carley, he published a report for the Brookings Institution examining the move away from net-metering laws used to support rooftop solar, Nevada’s Net Energy Metering Experience: The Making of a Policy Eclipse?. Currently, Davies is at work on a new edition of his casebook, Energy Law and Policy (with Klass, Osofsky, Tomain, and Wilson), as well as a series of articles related to renewable portfolio standards (RPSs). During summer 2017, Davies also served as a visiting professor at Seoul National University School of Law in South Korea, where he taught U.S. administrative law. This summer, Davies also completed a two-week speaking tour of five Australian cities, where he addressed U.S. energy policy under the Trump Administration.
Professor Leslie Francis’s book Privacy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with John Francis) was published by Oxford University Press in July.
Theresa Jensen joined the Stegner Center’s Environmental Dispute Resolution Program in 2017 as a Senior Mediator and Associate Director. She has been a dispute resolution professional in Oregon for over three decades, with expertise in building consensus among diverse parties in complex natural resource, environmental, and public policy disputes. She has helped resolve BLM timber, grazing and road access disputes, and helped state and local agencies address various environmental conflicts. In addition to mediating mature disputes, her work has also encompassed the prevention side of conflict resolution, including stakeholder engagement, relationship building, skills training, and collaboration coaching and support. Since joining the Stegner Center, she has been heading up a project with Region 4 of the US Forest Service to build collaborative capacity in the forest plan revision process; is co-teaching with Danya Rumore the Short Course on Effective Natural Resource Collaboration and is co-teaching with Michele Straube the law school class on Environmental Dispute Resolution.
Bob Keiter has completed the second edition of The Wyoming State Constitution, which was published by Oxford University Press in June as part of its Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States series. His article entitled “Toward a National Conservation Network Act: Transforming Landscape Conservation on the Public Lands into Law” will be published in 42 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. __ (Spring 2018). He consulted on the recent documentary film, produced by the University’s public television station (KUED), entitled “National Parks: Troubled Edens,” based loosely on his book, To Conserve Unimpaired: The Evolution of the National Park Idea. Recent speaking engagements include: the RMMLF Special Institute on “Federal Public Land and Resource Law in the 21st Century,” the Society of Professional Journalist’s regional conference (national parks), American Association of Law Libraries regional meeting (national parks), and the Wyoming State Bar Convention (the state constitution). His current project is a thirty year retrospective on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the evolution of ecosystem management in that region. He enjoyed his sabbatical year, which included trips to Europe and Africa, and is now pleased to have returned to the classroom and his Stegner Center responsibilities.
Professor Nancy McLaughlin was appointed as Reporter for the Uniform Law Commission’s Study Committee on possible revisions to the Uniform Conservation Easement Act. She also is serving as Associate Reporter for the American Law Institute’s first edition of a new Restatement of the Law of Charitable Nonprofit Organizations, and as a member of the American Bar Association Real Property, Trust, and Estate Law (RPTE) section’s Conservation Easements Task Force. She was appointed to the Board of Regents of the American College of Trust and Estates Counsel and serves on the board of directors of Utah Open Lands (a state-wide land trust), on the advisory board of Vital Ground (which works to protect grizzly bear habitat), and on the advisory board of the Humane Society’s Wildlife Land Trust (a national land trust). She comprehensively updated numerous sections on the administration of charitable gifts and charitable trusts in the often-cited Bogert, The Law of Trusts and Trustees treatise. Her article, “Tax-Deductible Conservation Easements and the Essential Perpetuity Requirements,” is forthcoming in the Virginia Tax Review (2017). She has a book chapter, “Federal Tax Incentives for Conservation Easement Donations: A Grand Experiment,” forthcoming in Tax and the Environment (Lexington Books 2018). She has presented on a variety of topics in a variety of venues, including at Loyola Los Angeles Law School’s Tax Policy Colloquium, University of Florida College of Law’s Environmental Law Conference, Texas Tech University College of Law’s Estate Planning Symposium, the Land Trust Alliance’s national conference, and via teleconference to USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service agency attorneys on conservation easement tax and enforcement issues. She blogs on conservation easement current developments on the Nonprofit Law Professors Blog, she helps organize the ABA RPTE section’s popular monthly Professors Corner Series, and she serves as professional editor for the ABA RPTE’s academic law journal.
Professor Arnold Reitze continues to serve as a member of the Utah Air Quality Board. During the 2016-2017 academic year he published the following articles: The Motor Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Program: Is It Cost Effective?, 47 Envtl. L. Rep. (ELI) (Oct. 2017); The Control of Air Pollution on Indian Reservations, 46 Environmental Law 893 (2017); Air Pollution on Indian Reservations, 31 Natural Resources & Env’t 1:8 (summer 2016); Biofuel, Encyclopedia of Environmental Law (Daniel Farber & Marjan Peeters, ed. 2016); and The Volkswagen Air Pollution Emissions Litigation, 46 Envtl. L. Rep. (ELI) 10,565 (July 2016).
Professor Danya Rumore became the Director of the Environmental Dispute Resolution (EDR) Program in July 2017. She continues to serve as a Research Assistant Professor in both the S.J. Quinney College of Law and the University of Utah Department of City and Metropolitan Planning. Dr. Rumore and the EDR Program hosted the national conferences of both the University Network for Collaborative Governance and the Association for Conflict Resolution Environmental and Public Policy Chapter at the S.J. Quinney College of Law in July 2017. The Program also hosted two Dialogues on Collaboration, one in December 2016 focused on “Working with Tribes: What Can Collaboration Bring to the Table?” and one in July 2017 focused on “Fostering Productive Dialogue in Divided Times.” Dr. Rumore taught Negotiation and Dispute Resolution in the College of Architecture and Planning in spring 2016 and will teach the course again in spring 2017. She also teaches a graduate level workshop course on Gateway and Amenity Community Planning, and co-developed and co-instructs the EDR Program’s Short Course on Effective Natural Resources Collaboration professional training. She serves on the executive committees for the University of Utah Global Change and Sustainability Center and the national University Network for Collaborative Governance. She is currently in the process of developing and launching a University of University Gateway and Amenity Community Initiative, which will focus on research, education, and capacity aimed at addressing the unique planning-related challenges facing gateway and amenity communities throughout Utah and the mountain west. As part of this initiative, she secured two major National Institute for Transportation and Communities grants last year. She also gave numerous invited talks and conference presentations, including at the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute Conference, the Utah Outdoor Recreation Summit, and the Association for Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference.
Professor John Ruple finalized “The Transfer of Public Lands Movement: The Battle to Take ‘Back’ Lands that Were Never Theirs,” which will be published in the 28 Colo. Nat. Resources, Energy & Envtl. L. Rev. ___ (2018). He also authored “The Rise and Fall of Planning 2.0 and Other Developments in BLM Land Management Planning,” 63 Rocky Mtn. Min. L. Inst. __ (2017), which was presented at the 63rd Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Annual Institute. Professor Ruple and S.J. Quinney alum Mark Capone’s work on NEPA efficacy was summarized in “NEPA: Studies in Effectiveness,” in the American Bar Association Section on Environment, Energy & Resources Public Land and Resource Committee Newsletter. Together with Professor Robert Keiter and University of Virginia laws student Andrew Ogniben, Professor Ruple published “National Monuments and National Conservation Areas: A Comparison in Light of the Bears Ears Proposal,” Stegner Center White Paper No. 2016-02 (2016). Professor Ruple also testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources on, the “Federal Land Freedom Act,” and presented on public land management issues to the National Conference of State Legislators, at the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, and at the Property and Environment Research Center’s Workshop on Innovations in Public Land Management. Professor Ruple is currently working on carbon capture and sequestration, as well as a comprehensive review of prior national monument designations and the president’s authority to modify monument proclamations. He also joined the Board of Directors of Friends of Cedar Mesa, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the protection of culturally rich public lands in San Juan County, Utah.