Profile

 Biography  | Publications  |  Speeches  |  Media Coverage  |  Climate Crisis Coverage (archived)

Mary Christina Wood is the Philip H. Knight Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the school's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center. She teaches property law, natural resources law, public trust law, and federal Indian law; she has also taught public lands law, wildlife law, and hazardous waste law.

She is the Founding Director of the school's nationally acclaimed Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center and is Faculty Leader of the Program's Conservation Trust Project, Global Environmental Democracy Project, Native Environmental Sovereignty Project, and Food Resilience 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 a co-author of a textbook on public trust law (Carolina Press, 2013). Her new book, Nature's Trust, was released in October, 2013 (by Cambridge University Press).

Professor Wood has published extensively on climate crisis, natural resources, and native law issues. She originated the approach called Atmospheric Trust Litigation to hold governments worldwide accountable for reducing carbon pollution within their jurisdictions, and her research is being used in cases and petitions brought on behalf of children and youth throughout the United States and in other countries. 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.

Brief Bio

Mary Christina Wood is a Philip H. Knight Professor of Law at the University of Oregon and the Faculty Director of the law school's nationally acclaimed Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center.  She is an award-winning professor and the co-author of leading textbooks on public trust law and natural resources law.  Her book, Nature's Trust: Environmental Law for a New Ecological Age (Cambridge University Press), sets forth a new paradigm of global ecological responsibility.  She originated the legal approach called Atmospheric Trust Litigation, now being used in cases brought on behalf of youth throughout the world, seeking to hold governments accountable to reduce carbon pollution within their jurisdictions.  She has developed a corresponding approach called Atmospheric Recovery Litigation, which would hold fossil fuel companies responsible for funding an Atmospheric Recovery Plan to draw down excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere using natural climate solutions.   Professor Wood is a frequent speaker on climate issues and has received national and international attention for her sovereign trust approach to global climate policy.

Featured Publications

For a full list of publications, please see the below Publication section.

• “On the Eve of Destruction”: Courts Confronting the Climate Emergency, INDIANA LAW JOURNAL (Winter 2022). SSRN Here (External reference documents: US v. OR, Confederated Tribes, and WA 1977 Motion, US v. OR/WA 2/28/1977 Transcript, Juliana v. United States 5/13/21 Transcript, Juliana v. United States 6/25/21 Transcript).

• Michael C. Blumm and Mary C. Wood, ‘No Ordinary Lawsuit’: Climate Change, Due Process, and the Public Trust Doctrine, 67 Am. U. L. Rev. 1 (2017).  SSRN  Draft available

• The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resources Law (with Michael C. Blumm) (Carolina Academic Press, 2013). To order, click here.

• Atmospheric Recovery Litigation: Making The Fossil Fuel Industry Pay To Restore A Viable Climate System - to download PDF, click here.

• "Atmospheric Trust Litigation Around the World," chapter in Fiduciary Duty and the Atmospheric Trust (Ken Coghill, Charles Sampford, Tim Smith, eds) Ashgate Publishing (Australia) (January 2012). (LINK to American draft version) For ordering information click here.