Environmental Law: A Conceptual and Pragmatic Approach, Third Edition

As the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and James I. Farr Chair in Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law, Robert Adler's goal is "to stimulate more interdisciplinary work in this increasingly global world... [and] to prepare students for that world, an environment that changes almost continuously, and which demands skills that go far beyond what has been traditionally taught in law schools." As a scholar, Adler urges a broader, more holistic approach to the restoration and protection of aquatic and other ecosystems than is used in traditional environmental laws alone, which focus on discrete kinds of environmental harm. After completing a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University (1977) and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center (1980 cum laude), Adler practiced environmental law for 15 years.

He has published dozens of articles and reports in law, policy, and science journals including Vanderbilt Law Review, Harvard Environmental Law Review, Utah Law Review, and George Washington Law Review, and a book on the history and impact of the Clean Water Act. He will publish two books in 2007, Environmental Law: A Conceptual and Pragmatic Approach (with David Driesen, Aspen Publishing) and Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems: A Troubled Sense of Immensity (Island Press). He regularly teaches courses in civil procedure and environmental law and is currently co-designing an interdisciplinary course called "Environmental Law and Engineering," in which law students and environmental engineering graduate students will work together on real-world environmental problems in Utah. Adler loves to spend time in Utah's outdoors, and in 2005 completed the Wasatch Front 100-mile trail race through Utah's beautiful Wasatch Mountains.