Mary Wood

Philip H. Knight Professor of Law,
Luvaas Faculty Fellow 2007-08

Mary Christina Wood is Philip H. Knight Professor of Law and Luvaas Faculty Fellow (2007-08) at the University of Oregon School of Law. She teaches property law, natural resources law, public trust law, federal Indian law, public lands law, wildlife law, and hazardous waste law. She is the Founding Director of the school's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program and is Faculty Leader of the Program's Conservation Trust Project, Sustainable Land Use Project and Native Environmental Sovereignty Project. After graduating from Stanford Law School in 1987, she served as a judicial clerk on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She then practiced in the environmental/natural resources department of Perkins Coie, a Pacific Northwest law firm. In 1994 she received the University's Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching and in 2002 she received the Orlando Hollis Faculty Teaching Award. Professor Wood is a co-author of a leading textbook on natural resources law (West, 2006) and has published extensively on climate crisis, natural resources, and native law issues. She is a frequent speaker on global warming issues and has received national and international attention for her sovereign trust approach to global climate policy. Professor Wood is currently working on a book entitled, Nature's Trust: A Legal Paradigm for Protecting Land and Natural Resources for Future Generations.

Recent Publications

"Regulating Discharges Into Groundwater: The Crucial Link in Pollution Control Under the Clean Water Act," republished in Agricultural Law Bibliography (Drew L. Kershen, ed.) (April 2009) (originally published in Harvard Environmental Law Review, 1988) 39:1 Environmental Law 43 (March 2009).

Nature's Trust: A Paradigm for Natural Resource Stewardship (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming Spring 2010). To read an abstract of this forthcoming book, click here.

"Advancing the Sovereign Trust of Government to Safeguard the Environment for Present and Future Generations (Part I): Ecological Realism and the Need for a Paradigm Shift," 39:1 Environmental Law 43 (March 2009).

"Advancing the Sovereign Trust of Government to Safeguard the Environment for Present and Future Generations (Part II): Instilling a Fiduciary Obligation in Governance," 39:1 Environmental Law 91 (March 2009).

To read an abstract describing both parts of the above work, click here.

"The Dawn of Planetary Patriotism: A Citizens' Call to Climate Defense," co-authored with Heather A. Brinton (forthcoming 2009).
To read an abstract of this forthcoming book, click here.

"Atmospheric Trust Litigation," in Climate Change Reader (W.H. Rodgers, Jr. and M. Robinson-Dorn, eds.) Carolina Academic Press (forthcoming 2009).

"Nature's Trust: A Legal, Political and Moral Frame for Global Warming," reprinted in Social Problems (Anna Leon-Guerrero and Kristine Zentgraf, eds.) (January 2009, Sage Publications, Inc.) (originally published by Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, May 2007).

Atmospheric Trust Obligation, chapter in ADJUDICATING CLIMATE CHANGE: SUB-NATIONAL, NATIONAL, AND SUPRA-NATIONAL APPROACHES (William C.G. Burns & Hari M. Osofsky, eds.) (forthcoming 2009, Cambridge University Press). To read an abstract of this article, click here.

"American Indian Law and Forestry," Encyclopedia of U.S. Indian Policy and Law, Paul Finkleman, ed., CQ Press (forthcoming 2009).

Treatise on Public Trust Law (work in progress with Professor Michael Blumm, 2008).

"Advancing the Sovereign Trust of Government to Safeguard the Environment for Present and Future Generations," Climate Legacy Initiative Project, (white paper) (May 2008).
To read an executive summary of this article, click here.

"Law and Climate Change: Government's Atmospheric Trust Responsibility," 10 Environmental Law Reporter (September 2008).

"A Framework of China-U.S. Partnership to Address Global Warming," 3 China Environmental and Resource Law Review, Ocean University (Renmin Press, Spring 2008).
To read an abstract of this article, click here.

"Nature's Trust: Reclaiming an Environmental Discourse," 2 Stratigraphy and Sedimentology of Oil-gas Basins, Geology Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Azerbaijan, Russia (Spring 2008).

"Government's Atmospheric Trust Responsibility," Ecotone, Environmental Studies Program, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR (Spring 2008).

"Government's Atmospheric Trust Responsibility," California Environmental Law Reporter (February 2008).

"Tribes as Trustees Again (Part I): The Emerging Tribal Role in the Conservation Trust Movement," Harvard Environmental Law Journal (with Zach Welker) (Spring 2008); republished in The Sovereignty Symposium 2008 conference proceedings, http://www.oscn.net/sovereignty/default.aspx. To read an abstract of this article, click here.

"Tribes as Trustees Again (Part II): Evaluating Four Models of Tribal Participation in the Conservation Trust Movement," Stanford Environmental Law Journal (with Matthew O'Brien) (Spring 2008); republished in The Sovereignty Symposium 2008 conference proceedings, http://www.oscn.net/sovereignty/default.aspx. To read an abstract of this article, click here.

"Courts as Guardians of the Global Trust" (article in progress, 2008).

The Presidential Climate Action Project, Chapter 9, "Natural Resources Stewardship" (contributing author) http://www.climateactionproject.com (September 2007); "Nature's Trust: A Paradigm for Natural Resources Stewardship" (white paper) (December 2007).

For a complete list of Professor Wood's publications, please see her curriculum vitae.

Back to top