The most recent U.S. News & World Report ranking of law schools lists FSU’s Environmental Law program as 14th in the United States, and third in the southeast, after Tulane and Duke. We summarize below some of the more substantial programming initiatives the College of Law has undertaken in recent months, as well as some of the recent scholarship of our faculty.

     This past spring the College of Law provided an exceptional menu of programming for scholars, members of the public, and our students. Our symposium on Default Rules featured leading national scholars from, among others, Yale, Virginia, Michigan, and Berkeley. Our faculty workshop series similarly included prominent academics from around the country, including Rob Fischman of Indiana, Robin Craig (Indiana-Indianapolis); David Driesen (Syracuse); Bill Buzbee (Emory); and Jonathan Adler (Case Western). Professor Fischman also gave the Spring 2005 Distinguished Lecture on issues relating to national parks. The spring Environmental Forum, on hurricane response, included a diverse group of Florida-based experts from the government, private sector, and public interest community.

     The School’s faculty continued to be highly productive in its scholarship. For example, Professor Jim Rossi’s book, Regulatory Bargaining and Public Law, was published recently by Cambridge University Press. According to Matthew Spitzer, the dean of the University of Southern California Law School, “Regulatory Bargaining and Public Law is a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in the modern law of regulation.” Professor Rossi’s publications during the past year also include articles in the Wake Forest Law Review, the William and Mary Law Review, and the Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum. Professor J.B. Ruhl recently completed a series of articles and lectures on different aspects of the Endangered Species Act, marking the 30th anniversary of the Act. Installments will be appearing in Environmental Law, Kansas Law Review, Nebraska Law Review, Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum, Public Land & Resources Law Review, Natural Resources & Environment, and Minnesota Journal of Law, Science, and Technology.

     Professor Donna Christie has published pieces on coastal issues and the marine environment in Environmental Law, The Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law, and the Journal of Transnational Law & Policy. Professor Mark Seidenfeld recently published an article on environmental enforcement in the George Washington University Law Review and an article on administrative law in Issues in Legal Scholarship. Professor David Markell has completed two pieces on North American environmental governance which will be published in Loyola and in the University of North Carolina’s Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, and an article on government transparency and accountability that is scheduled for publication in the next issue of the University of Oregon Law Review.

     The depth and breadth of the faculty’s scholarship is reflected by the fact that four FSU faculty serve as co-authors of casebooks. Professor Rossi’s pace-setting casebook on Energy Law is scheduled for a 2nd edition, to be published in 2005. Professor J.B. Ruhl, already a co-author of the leading casebook on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management, also is serving as a co-author for a forthcoming casebook on environmental law. Professor Donna Christie’s casebook on Oceans and Coastal Law is in its 5th edition (the last three with West Publishing). Professor David Markell’s environmental law casebook, Environmental Protection: Law and Policy, is in its fourth edition with Aspen.