We are proud to welcome renowned water law scholar Christine Klein to our faculty as a visiting professor for the fall 2024 semester. Professor Klein is a distinguished lawyer whose work in natural resources law has helped address some of the most pressing environmental issues of our time. A St. Louis native, Klein looks forward to serving an institution she has long observed from the outside.
“I have always admired WashU Law’s outstanding reputation,” Klein said. “The students here are curious and insightful, and it’s my honor to work with them while advancing my own research.”
Klein is leading two courses for the fall semester: Property, where 1L students will benefit from her deep expertise in the subject; and The Law of Fire & Flood, which will examine wildfires and flooding in the Mississippi River Basin, as well as the many policy decisions stemming from them.
Klein is the current Cone, Wagner, Nugent, Hazouri & Roth Professor of Law Emerita at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she has served since 2003. Prior to that, she served on the faculty of Michigan State University College of Law and directed its environmental certificate program. Klein began her legal career as a water rights litigator in the Colorado Office of the Attorney General, where she found an enduring passion for water and its unique relationship to property law.
“I was struck by the deep passion of fights over the right to use water and by the intimate connection of such disputes to a particular geographic place,” Klein said. “Since that time, I have approached my scholarship in both natural resources law and property through a place-based lens that yields a deeper understanding of the human motivations shaping the law.”
Klein’s scholarship includes more than 30 academic articles and three books, including “Natural Resources Law: A Place-Based Book of Problems and Cases,” which is used by law schools across the country in teaching environmental and natural resources law. Her work in water law, natural resources, and property has been cited in judicial and administrative opinions at both the federal and state levels.
Professor Klein holds a J.D. from the University of Colorado and an LL.M. from Columbia University Law School. She has served on two committees of the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council, where she studied sustainable water and environmental management in the California Bay-Delta.
Please join us in welcoming Professor Klein to Anheuser-Busch Hall!