Ruhl, who co-directs Vanderbilt’s Energy, Environment and Land Use Program, is an expert in environmental, natural resources and property law.
J.B. Ruhl, who holds a David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair of Law, has been named to the 2015 class of Fellows of the American College of Environmental Lawyers. The ACOEL is a professional association of lawyers who practice in the field of environmental law and are recognized by their peers as preeminent in their field. Membership is by invitation only, and members must have at least 15 years of experience in the practice of environmental or energy law.
Ruhl’s influential scholarly articles relating to climate change, the Endangered Species Act, ecosystems, governance, and other environmental and natural resources law issues have appeared in the California, Duke, Georgetown, Stanford and Vanderbilt law reviews, the environmental law journals at several top law schools and peer-reviewed scientific journals. His works have been selected by peers as among the best law review articles in the field of environmental law nine times from 1989 to 2014.
In addition to serving as co-director of Vanderbilt’s Energy, Environment and Land Use Program, Ruhl was named director of Vanderbilt’s Program on Law and Innovation in 2014. He joined Vanderbilt’s law faculty in 2011 from the faculty of the Florida State University College of Law, where he was the Matthews & Hawkins Professor of Property and had taught since 1999.
Before entering the academy, Ruhl was a partner with Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright) in Austin, Texas, where he also taught on the adjunct faculty of the University of Texas School of Law. He earned both his J.D. and B.A. at the University of Virginia, and holds an LL.M. in environmental law from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in geography from Southern Illinois University, where he taught from 1994-99.