J.B. Ruhl
Matthews & Hawkins Professor of Property
Ecosystem Management, Environmental Law,

Land Use and Property
jruhl@law.fsu.edu

“Climate change is on everyone’s radar. Questions like ‘How do ecosystems respond?’ and ‘What does it mean to be managing ecosystems?’ abound.

“No part of the country or world is immune from climate change. People keep thinking federally: What will the federal government do? But, we need to be asking what are cities and states going to do? The effort has to be coordinated at all levels. It must be a local, state and federal response.

“I have met with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to explore responses to climate change, and the Environmental Protection Agency, to research ecosystem services. I try make my scholarship relevant and influential to policy and help these agencies develop policy.

“We have a very difficult set of choices to make in the future. Ecosystem management will always play an important and controversial role in our futures.

More information about Professor J.B. Ruhl.

Robin Kundis Craig
Attorneys' Title Professor and Associate Dean for Environmental Programs

Environmental Interface of Land and Sea, Environmental Law, Florida Water Law,

Water Law

rcraig@law.fsu.edu

“One of the big issues in water resource management is that the various facets of that management are divided legally and regulatorily among different laws and different agencies. I predict that in the next one to five years, as the stress on water systems becomes increasingly intense both in Florida and elsewhere, the nation will begin moving toward a more serious watershed-based approach to water resource management to reduce and/or resolve increasing conflicts over the use and distribution of water. Another major type of conflict, which is causing increasing litigation around the country, is that between consumptive users of water supplies and the needs of species and aquatic ecosystems.

“My work on the National Research Council’s two Committees on the Mississippi River and the Clean Water Act has been part of the new approach to try to figure out ways to treat, legally, the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico as a single system to improve water quality in both water bodies.”

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Donna R. Christie
Elizabeth C. and Clyde W. Atkinson Professor and Associate Dean for International Programs

Coastal and Ocean Law, International Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, Property Law

dchristi@law.fsu.edu

“The biggest issues in ocean and coastal law facing Florida that I am working on are coastal boundaries and public beach access; internationally, they are ocean governance of large marine ecosystems.

“I’ve recently worked for the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy in its three-year study on development of a national ocean policy. I also work with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on the issue of coastal boundaries and with Surfriders to develop legislative proposals for public beach access.

“Attempts to manage oceans on a single-issue basis have been largely unsuccessful. Ocean governance must be implemented on the ecosystem level and new approaches have to transcend traditional jurisdictional constraints.”

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Jim Rossi
Harry M. Walborsky Professor and Associate Dean for Research

Administrative Law, Energy Law and Policy

jrossi@law.fsu.edu

“In the next decade policymakers will need to address legal barriers to the adoption of new energy producing technologies, such as renewable approaches to generating electricity. In addition, energy law will play a central role in improving the storage and transportation of energy, facilitating more efficient uses of energy such as green buildings, and encouraging greater conservation on the part of energy users.

“My research focuses on the economic, institutional and governance concerns behind sound energy and natural resource policy. For example, I have addressed how traditional doctrines of public utility law have presented a barrier to deregulation of electric power and how state and local approaches to environmental regulation can coexist with wholesale power markets. I have also explored how institutional and governance concerns play an important role as the traditional consensus between electric utilities, consumers and environmental groups is renegotiated.”

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David L. Markell
Steven M. Goldstein Professor

Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Land Use Regulation, North American Environmental Law and Policy

dmarkell@law.fsu.edu

“Much of my recent and ongoing work focuses on citizens’ roles in governance, the role of enforcement in achieving environmental goals, and the ‘internationalization’ of environmental law. Interest in public participation in governance has exploded in recent years and I have been working on empirical projects intended to enhance understanding of citizen preferences for different features of participation mechanisms.

“I have maintained my long-standing interest in the environmental enforcement arena, including a recent article that explores the effectiveness of current enforcement efforts in achieving environmental goals and identifies ways in which enforcement efforts could be more effective.

“The dramatic increase in the number of international institutions and agreements in recent decades raises substantial governance issues, including questions about the legitimacy of these new forms of government and the appropriate locus of authority to deal with pressing environmental concerns.”

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Mark B. Seidenfeld
Patricia A. Dore Professor

of Administrative Law

Administrative Law

mseidenf@law.fsu.edu

“Probably the most interesting recent development in administrative law is the extent to which the U.S. president can assert authority to take action that has not been left to him by Congress and the extent to which Congress can restrict the president from doing so. Pragmatically, the question is: To what extent can the president tell the head of an agency, ‘I want you to take this particular regulatory action’? One has to ask about the legal authority of the president and Congress, but that authority must allow the government to function in the modern world.

“Another focus of my scholarship is the issue of pre-emption. My recent Duke Law Journal article (co-authored with Florida State Law colleague Brian Galle) focuses on the extent to which a federal administrative agency can prevent state governments from regulating in areas where Congress has granted the agency general regulatory authority, but has not explicitly granted the agency authority to pre-empt state law. We argue that in many regulatory contexts, agencies are more transparent, deliberative and meaningfully politically accountable than Congress, and that agencies therefore are well suited to balance the need for particular regulation against the flexibility and experimentation that state by state regulation may facilitate.”

More information about Professor Mark Seidenfeld.