Faculty > John Bonine

Professor of Law Contact Room 320 Phone: (541) 346-3827 Email John Bonine Courses Administrative Law Constitutional Law I Environment and Pollution Environment Law LL.M. Seminar

John Bonine is one of the pioneers of environmental law in the United States, first working in the U.S. Senate in 1972 and then the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where he rose to Associate General Counsel before joining the University of Oregon in 1978. While at Oregon, he has created or co-founded numerous institutions: the world's first environmental law clinic, now WELC; the Public Interest Environmental Law Conferences or PIELC, the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide or ELAW, a domestic network of public interests environmental lawyers in the United States, a network of environmental law professors, and the Oregon-Lviv University Partnership.

He is a member of the Commission on Environmental Law of the World Conservation Union and an elected member of the International Council of Environmental Lawyers. He is author of a textbook, The Law of Environmental Protection, and various works particularly on public participation and access to justice in environmental decision-making. Bonine teaches Administrative Law, Comparative Environmental Law, Constitutional Law, Environment and Pollution, and the LL.M. Seminar.

Professor Bonine's passion is public-interest law.

INTERNATIONAL -- In recent years he has devoted much of his efforts to promoting environmental law around the world. For example, he is:

• co-founder of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-LAW), a network of environmental lawyers in 50 countries;
• a citizen negotiator on international environmental treaties and conventions in Geneva and London for the European ECO Forum;
• an advisory board member for the Ukrainian public interest environmental law firm Ecopravo-Lviv; and
• an active member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law.

NATIONAL -- Bonine teaches and researches U.S. environmental law, and represents citizen groups in environmental cases. His work includes:

• co-founding the world's first Environmental Law Clinic (at the University of Oregon) in 1978, which now works through the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene;
• founding the world-renowned Public Interest Environmental Law Conferences at the University of Oregon;
• co-authored the well-regarded casebook, The Law of Environmental Protection (West, 1984, 1992)

BACKGROUND -- Professor Bonine's legal career includes work in the U.S. Senate, six years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (ultimately as associate general counsel), and a law professor since 1978. His academic articles cover such diverse topics as legal requirements for the use of plain English in environmental impact statements, public participation in environmental matters, standing-to-sue in other countries, and penalties against government agencies for violating environmental laws.

Recent Publications

HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT (Carolina Academic Press, 2008) (with Kravchenko) (in preparation)

Other recent work, including an homage to University of Washington Professor William H. Rodgers, can be viewed here.