J. B. Ruhl
David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law Co-director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program
Voice: 615-322-6500
Fax: 615-322-6631
Email: j.b.ruhl@vanderbilt.edu
Office: Room 268
View curriculum vitae (.pdf)
Links
Research Interest(s)
Ecosystem services policy, climate change adaptation, endangered species and wetlands protection, complex adaptive systems theory, adaptive ecosystem management, growth management, and related environmental, natural resources and land-use fields
Education
Ph.D. Southern Illinois University
LL.M. George Washington University
J.D., B.A. University of Virginia
Biography
J. B. Ruhl is an expert in environmental law, land use and property law. Before he joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty as the David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law in 2011, he was the Matthews & Hawkins Professor of Property at the Florida State University College of Law, where he had taught since 1999. His influential scholarly articles on environmental law relating to climate change, the Endangered Species Act, ecosystems, federal public lands, and other land use and environmental issues have appeared in California Law Review, Georgetown Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Duke Law Review, Environmental Law Reporter, Vanderbilt Law Review and the specialty environment journals at several top law schools, among other journals. His works have been selected among the best law review articles in the field of environmental law seven times from 1989 to 2012. Over the course of his career, he has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, Vermont Law School, George Washington University Law School, the University of Texas Law School and Lewis & Clark College of Law. He began his academic career at the Southern Illinois University School of Law, where he taught from 1994-99 and earned his Ph.D. in geography. Before entering the academy, he was a partner with Fulbright & Jaworski in Austin, Texas, where he also taught on the adjunct faculty of the University of Texas Law School.
Representative Publications
Books
The Practice and Policy of Environmental Law, Foundation Press University Casebook Series, 2d Ed. (2010) (with J. Nagle, J. Salzman, and A. Klass)
The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services, Island Press (2007) (with S. Kraft and C. Lant)
The Law of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management, Foundation Press University Casebook Series (2nd edition 2006, 1st edition, 2002) (with J. Nagle)
Articles
"Climate Change Meets the Law of the Horse," Duke Law Journal (forthcoming)
"The Political Economy of Climate Change Winners," Minnesota Law Review (forthcoming)
"The Endangered Species Act’s Fall from Grace in the Supreme Court," Harvard Environmental Law Review (forthcoming)
"An Empirical Assessment of Climate Change in the Courts: A New Jurisprudence or Business as Usual?" Florida Law Review (forthcoming 2011)
"Gaming the Past: The Theory and Practice of Historic Baselines in the Administrative State," 64 Vanderbilt Law Review 1 (2011) (with J. Salzman)
"Climate Change, Dead Zones, and Massive Problems in the Administrative State: Guidelines for Whittling Away," 98 California Law Review 59 (2010) (with J. Salzman). Selected for reprinting in 2011 Land Use and Environmental Law Review, an annual compendium of peer-selected leading law review articles in land use and environmental law.
"Climate Change and the Endangered Species Act: Building Bridges to the No-Analog Future," 88 Boston University Law Review 1 (2008). Reprinted in 2009 Land Use and Environmental Law Review, an annual compendium of peer-selected leading law review articles in land use and environmental law, and in 2009 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review, an annual compendium of peer-selected leading law review articles in environmental law.
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