Awarded to recognize lifetime achievement in wildlife conservation.

Defenders of Wildlife Legacy Award

Recognized as one of the nations best environmental stewards by Vanity Fair magazine.

Best Environmental Stewards

Grand Canyon Trust : Member, Board of Directors

The Wyss Foundation : Member and Vice-Chair of the Board

Legal Wilderness: Its Past and Some Speculations on Its Future

Reflections on Social Change and Law Reform

Federal Lands in the Twenty-First Century

A Property Clause for the Twenty-First Century

Shaping the Modern West: The Role of the Executive Branch

This casebook provides a strong doctrinal base that spans eastern and western water resource issues, as well as groundwater and surface water. This edition retains its in-depth consideration of water institutions and federal-state and interstate water relations; and it contains sharpened coverage of property rights claims. It includes major new Supreme Court decisions, along with new key cases from several jurisdictions. It reflects the emergence of water law as a leading edge of legal adaptation to changing climate, considering impacts on water availability and the demands for its use.

Legal Control of Water Resources (American Casebook Series)

In this highly entertaining as well as profoundly scholarly study of the 1872 Mining Law, John Leshy has produced both a legal treatise and a history of the West written from the vantage point of mineral exploration and production. The Mining Law illuminates some of the more obscure corners of Western history, federal land and resource policy, and the relationships among various branches of government in making and carrying out policy. For more than a century the mining of hard-rock minerals in the United States has been carried out under this law, which was written to promote mineral development in the age of the pick-and-shovel prospector. It is the last important survivor of the great laws undergirding the westward expansion. The Mining Law has never been changed to reflect modern mining technologies or newer social values that question whether mineral extraction is the best use of the land and its resources. From its enactment, the Mining Law's inadequacies have given rise to illegal abuse, litigation, and patchwork regulation by federal agencies and judge-made law. Leshy explains how the law has survived by a combination of executive and judicial manipulation in the face of legislative paralysis. Today, as concern mounts about economic efficiency, government regulation, environmental protection, the rebuilding of the nation's industrial base, and competing uses of the land and its resources, the argument for reform of the law becomes compelling. The present law not only obstructs the very mineral development it was designed to promote; it may no longer be in the national interest. Certainly any future attempts to rewrite or amend the Law will start off with Leshy's exposition and analysis of its origins, operation, and implementation, and his detailed examination of the issues surrounding the law, its interpretation by courts and administrative agencies, and the attempts to adapt the law to changing conditions and social goals. Assessing the prospect for reform in today's political climate, he suggests arrangements regarding the law's reform that might be concluded by industry, small operators, and environmental protection advocates as well as creative measures that might be taken by Congress, the president, and the courts.

The Mining Law: A Study in Perpetual Motion (Resources for the Future)

In The Arizona State Constitution, John D. Leshy provides a comprehensive history of Arizona's consititutional development.  Adopted at the height of the progressive movement, the Constitution contains many progressive innovations. Leshy describes these along with the dramatic changes the state has undergone in subsequent decades.  He also includes a section-by-section commentary which crisply discusses the evolution and interpretation of each section, including significant court decisions. The Arizona State Constitution is an essential reference guide for readers who seek a rich account of Arizona's constitutional evolution. Previously published by Greenwood, this title has been brought back in to circulation by Oxford University Press with new verve. Re-printed with standardization of content organization in order to facilitate research across the series, this title, as with all titles in the series, is set to join the dynamic revision cycle of The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States.  The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States is an important new series that reflects a renewed international interest in constitutional history and provides expert insight into each of the 50 state constitutions. Each volume in this innovative series contains a historical overview of the state's constitutional development, a section-by-section analysis of its current constitution, and a comprehensive guide to further research.   Under the expert editorship of Professor G. Alan Tarr, Director of the Center on State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University, this series provides essential reference tools for understanding state constitutional law. Books in the series can be purchased individually or as part of a complete set, giving readers unmatched access to these important political documents.

The Arizona State Constitution (Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States)

UC Hastings College of the Law was founded in 1878 as the first law department of the University of California, and today is one of the top-rated law schools in the United States. Our alumni span the globe and are among the most respected lawyers, judges and business leaders today. Our faculty are nationally renowned as both teachers and scholars.

UC Hastings College of the Law

Professor John Leshy came to UC Hastings in the fall of 2001, after serving as Solicitor (General Counsel) of the U.S. Department of the Interior throughout the Clinton Administration. Previously he taught at Arizona State University College of Law (1980-1992), and served in the Interior Department in the Carter Administration, as special counsel to the Chair of the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, and with the Natural Resources Defense Council in California. He started his legal career as a litigator with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 2008-2009 Leshy co-chaired the Obama Administration transition team for the Interior Department, after heading the Interior transition team for Clinton-Gore in 1992-93. In 2013 he received the Defenders of Wildlife Legacy Award for lifetime contributions to wildlife conservation.

In 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2011 Leshy was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1969, after earning an A.B. at Harvard College. His publications include books on the Mining Law of 1872 (1987) and the Arizona Constitution (2d edition published in 2013), and a co-author of textbooks on water law (6th edition published in 2018) and federal land and resources law (7th edition published in 2014).

Natural Resources Law

Public Land Law

Water Law

Federal Indian Law

Real Property Law

State and Federal Constitutional Law

Courses

Publications

Curriculum Vitae

Law Review Articles on SSRN

Napolitano: Washington lacks constitutional right to own land in Western states

A Soft Spot for Public Lands

Drier, Tainted Nevada May Be Legacy of Gold Rush

Bill Authorizes Private Purchase of Federal Land

Emeritus Harry D. Sunderland Distinguished Professor of Real Property Law

Representative Southerland questions Professor John Leshy about the federal regulations that affect his job at the Natural Resources Committee Oversight Hearing on Mining Jobs on 9-14-2011

Mining Jobs Hearing: Rep. Southerland questions Prof. John Leshy on job regulations

Christopher Schroeder gives an overview of some of the major environmental policy issues currently confronting the United States. Lynn Scarlett, Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior, presents "Evolving Toward Cooperative Conservation: Policy Tools and Barriers." John Leshy, Professor of Law at UC Hastings, formerly Solicitor of the Department of Interior under the Clinton Administration, presents "Federal Lands and Natural Resources in the Bush (II) Administration: An Outsiders Assessment."

Recorded on November 14, 2003.

DELPF Symposium.

Appearing: Christopher Schroeder (Duke University School of Law), host ; Lynn Scarlett (Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior), speaker ; John Leshy (University of California Hastings School of Law), speaker.

DELPF Symposium 2003 | Overview of Current Natural Resource Policy

The Committee on Natural Resources held an oversight hearing entitled, "The Endangered Species Act: How Litigation is Costing Jobs and Impeding True Recovery Efforts."

Witnesses:

Panel I

Ms. Karen Budd-Falen
Attorney
Budd-Falen Law Offices
Cheyenne, Wyoming

Mr. Doug Miller
General Manager
Public Utility District # 2 of Pacific County
Raymond, Washington

Mr. Kieran Suckling
Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity
Tucson, Arizona

Mr. Jay Tutchton
General Counsel
WildEarth Guardians
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Mr. John Leshy
Professor
UC-Hastings College of the Law
San Francisco, California

Mr. Brandon Middleton
Attorney
Pacific Legal Foundation
Sacramento, California

Panel II

The Honorable Dan Ashe
Director
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Washington, DC

Mr. Eric Schwaab
Assistant Administrator for Fisheries
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Washington, DC

Select Inquiry Type