Joseph Lawrence Sax (February 3, 1936 – March 9, 2014) was an environmental law professor, known for developing the

public trust doctrine The public trust doctrine is the principle that the sovereign holds in trust for public use some Natural resource, resources such as shoreline between the high and low tide lines, regardless of private property ownership. Origins The Roman law, ...

.Douglas Martin
"Joseph Sax, Who Pioneered Environmental Law, Dies at 78"
(obituary), ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', March 10, 2014. Born and raised in Chicago, Sax graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1957 and then earned a J.D. degree in 1959 from the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dist ...

. After a few years in private practice and at the Department of Justice he began teaching, first with the University of Colorado in 1962 and then at the University of Michigan in 1965. He joined the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1986.Joseph L. Sax
(faculty profile), Berkeley Law (last visited March 11, 2014). From 1994 to 1996, Sax worked with the

Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

under Interior Secretary

Bruce Babbitt The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...

. Sax was involved in environmental and conservation law from early in his career, working with the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

in Colorado. drafting Michigan's environmental law (known as the "Sax Act") and working on a variety of water resource cases in California. Dan Farber
"Berkeley Law: Environmental Law"
''

SFGate The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The p ...

'', Feb. 26, 2012. It was while he was teaching law students at the University of Colorado that he realized that there was no satisfactory theory accounting for the public interest in natural resources law, and that his work was "grooming lawyers who might one day help companies extract resources, mainly from public lands."

Works

; Books * ''Playing Darts With a Rembrandt: Public and Private Rights to Cultural Treasures'' (1999) * ''Mountains Without Handrails'' * ''Water Law--Planning and Policy'' * ''Water Law--Cases and Commentary'' * ''Defending the Environment'' ; Scholarly articles
"The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law: Effective Judicial Intervention"
68 ''

Michigan Law Review The ''Michigan Law Review'' is an American law review and the flagship law journal of the University of Michigan Law School. History The ''Michigan Law Review'' was established in 1902, after Gustavus Ohlinger, a student in the Law Department ...

'' 471 (1970)

Awards

Blue Planet Prize The recognises outstanding efforts in scientific research or applications of science that contribute to solving global environmental problems. The prize was created by the Asahi Glass Foundation in 1992, the year of the Rio Earth Summit, and ...

- 2007, from the Asahi Glass Foundation ("likened to a Nobel for environmental science") *

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, fellow * Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, University of Michigan * Elizabeth Haub Environmental Prize of the Free University of Brussels *

Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...

's Conservationist of the Year Award *

William O. Douglas William Orville Douglas (October 16, 1898January 19, 1980) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was known for his strong progressive and civil libertarian views, and is often ci ...

Legal Achievement Award from the Sierra Club * Environmental Quality Award of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Notes

1936 births 2014 deaths American legal scholars Environmental law Harvard University alumni University of Chicago Law School alumni University of Colorado faculty University of Michigan faculty UC Berkeley School of Law faculty Lawyers from Chicago 20th-century American lawyers {{US-law-bio-stub