The University of Arizona's Program on Economics, Law, and the Environment (ELE), a joint research and education initiative between UA's James E. Rogers College of Law and the department of agricultural and resource economics in UA's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, has concluded a very successful first semester.
The ELE Program conducts research on the use and conservation of environmental and natural resources. The program's interdisciplinary approach to such issues combines the insights of economics with the theory, institutions and practice of law.
"It was obvious," said Dean Lueck, ELE co-director and Bartley P. Cardon Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics and also a professor of economics and of law. "U of A has outstanding faculty in both environmental law and natural resource economics. It didn't take long for us to realize we should be working together."
Kirsten H. Engel, ELE co-director and UA professor of law, added, "UA's stellar scholars in these areas have a lot of interest in bringing each other's expertise to bear on environmental problems that the Southwest and the country face. No other university has such a program."
The specialties of ELE's current list of faculty affiliates include: water economics and water law, the economics of natural resources and the law of natural resources, land use economics and land use law, the economics of property and property law, the law and economics of environmental regulation, biodiversity, sustainability, federalism and risk management.
Both Engel and Lueck, who joined the UA faculty in 2005 and 2004 respectively, were drawn to the UA by its strengths in these fields and in the willingness of UA scholars to work across disciplines.
For the spring 2007 semester, the program invited five outside scholars to come to the UA and present their works-in-progress on various topics applying economic approaches to environmental problems and natural resource issues. Students could enroll in the workshop/seminar for credit and other members of the University were also invited to attend the talks. The workshops will be held every spring semester.
The goal of the ELE program is to become a nationally recognized center for the combined study of economics, law and the environment, Lueck said. "We intend to not only bring in first-rate scholars to visit the UA and present their work, but also to attract and encourage the best students to come here as well."
In addition to classes and seminars, the program plans to hold a major academic event every fall. This fall's symposium, "Property Rights in Environmental Assets: Economic and Legal Perspectives," will be held at the Arizona State Museum on Oct. 26, 2007. The papers will be published in a special issue of the Arizona Law Review in the spring of 2008.
A public conference, "Adaptation to Climate Change in the Southwest: Science and Policy," is being planned for the fall of 2008.
Engel said, "One of the reasons I came to U of A is its willingness to engage in cutting-edge cross-disciplinary dialogues. This is a great example of the possibilities a university creates when it encourages scholars to look outside the narrow confines of their own disciplines."
She added, "Economics and the law are leading disciplines in the study of environmental and natural resource issues that usually operate independently. The ELE Program is the first formal collaborative program between law and economics in the nation that focuses on environmental issues."