Alejandro Camacho

Professor of Law

Alejandro Camacho is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where he teaches courses in property, natural resources law, and environmental law. His research often explores the goals, structures, and processes of regulation, with a particular focus on natural resources law, public lands law, pollution control law, and land use regulation. His writing generally seeks to reconsider the role of public participation and scientific expertise in regulation, the allocation of authority between public institutions, and how the law's goals and strategies must and can be reshaped to effectively account for emerging technologies and the dynamic character of natural and human systems. Before joining UCLA, Professor Camacho was Chancellor's Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources at UC Irvine School of Law; an Associate Professor at the Notre Dame Law School; a research fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center; and practiced environmental and land use law. In Fall 2017, he was the Florence Rogatz Visiting Professor of Law at the Yale Law School.

Camacho received a B.A. summa cum laude in Political Science and a B.A. summa cum laude in Criminology, Law, and Society from the University of California, Irvine; a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School; and an LL.M from Georgetown University Law Center. Professor Camacho is an elected member of the American Law Institute and an elected fellow of the American Bar Foundation; on the Board of Directors and a Scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform, a nonprofit think tank devoted to responsive government, environmental and health protections, and climate action; and the former chair of the Association of American Law Schools' Section on Natural Resources. He is a frequent public speaker and has contributed opinion pieces or interviews for various print and radio news outlets (including the Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, The Australian, Discover, Nature Climate Change, Bloomberg, Businessweek, HuffPost, Mother Jones, The Hill, Washington Post and National Public Radio stations).

Camacho's award-winning legal scholarship includes articles published in the Virginia Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Washington University Law Review, Emory Law Journal, BYU Law Review, North Carolina Law Review, Colorado Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, Yale Journal on Regulation, Harvard Journal on Legislation, Stanford Environmental Law Journal, Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, Regulation & Governance and Law, Innovation, & Technology. He is the co-author of Reorganizing Government: A Functional and Dimensional Framework (NYU Press 2019); Property: Cases & Materials, Fifth Edition (Aspen 2022), and Environmental Protection: Law and Policy, Ninth Edition (Aspen 2023); and Lessons for a Warming Planet: History of U.S. Law and the Environment (forthcoming 2026). Professor Camacho's interdisciplinary research has involved collaborations with experts in ecology, land use planning, political science, computer science, genetics, philosophy, and sociology. He is the principal investigator on the Integrated and Equitable Climate Action project, which aims to align local plans with California's climate mandates while developing best practices for effective and equitable adaptation planning. His scientific publications include articles published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, BioScience, the Journal of Applied Ecology, Frontiers in Climate, and Issues in Science and Technology.

Bibliography

  • Books And Book Chapters
    • (with Brigham Daniels), in Lessons for a Warming Planet: History of U.S. Law and the Environment (NYU Press , forthcoming 2026).
    • (with Robert L. Glicksman, William W. Buzbee, Daniel R. Mandelker, and Emily Hammond), in Environmental Protection: Law and Policy (Aspen Publishers, 2023). Book Info.
    • (with Robert L. Glicksman, William W. Buzbee, Daniel R. Mandelker, and Emily Hammond), in Teacher's Manual, Environmental Protection Law & Policy, 9th edition (Aspen Publishing, 2023).
    • The Endangered Species Act, in Global Climate Change and U.S. Law (edited by Michael B. Gerrard, Jody Freeman, & Michael berger, ABA 2023). Book Info.
    • (with James Charles Smith and Edward J. Larson), in Property: Cases and Materials (Aspen Publishing, 2022). Book Info.
    • (with James Charles Smith and Edward J. Larson), in Teacher's Manual, Property: Cases & Materials.
    • (with Robert L. Glicksman), in Reorganizing Government: A Functional and Dimensional Framework (NYU Press , 2019). (reviewed by Joel A. Mintz, 5 Admin L. Rev. Accord 81-84 (2019);  P. Lermack, 57 Choice 695 (2020); Antonio Villalpando Acuña, 29 Gestion Y Politica Publica 503-509 (2020)).
      Book Info.
    • Maintaining Resilience in the Face of Climate Change (with T. Douglas Beard), in Social-Ecological Resilience and Law 235-264 (Columbia University Press, 2014). SSRN
    • Managing ecosystem effects in an era of rapid climate change, in Climate Change Law 555-566 (edited by Daniel Farber & Marjan Peeters, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016). SSRN
    • Managing Adaptation: Developing a Learning Infrastructure in the United States’ Federal System, in Implementing Adaptation Strategies by Legal, Economic and Planning Instruments on Climate Change 41-54 (Springer, 2014). SSRN
  • Law Journal Articles And Essays
    • The Case for Addressing Ecological Risk from Emerging Biotechnologies and an Agenda for Future Reforms, (with David Dana), 85 Ohio St. L. J. 1221-50 (2025). Full Text
    • Adapting Conservation Governance under Climate Change: Lessons from Tribal Country (with Elizabeth Kronk Warner, Jason McLachlan, and Nathan Kroeze), 110 Va. L. Rev. 1549-1618. (reprinted in NADIA B. AHMAD & PATRICIA E. SALKIN, EDS., LAND USE & ENV’T L. REV.) 2025-2026 ED. (CLARK BOARDMAN CALLAGHAN forthcoming 2025).
      Full Text
    • In the Anthropocene: Adaptive Law, Ecological Health, and Biotechnologies, 15 Law, Innovation & Tech. 280-312. doi: 10.1080/17579961.2023.2184133 (2023). Full Text
    • Six Priority Recommendations for Improving Conservation under the ESA (with Melissa L. Kelly & Ya-Wei Li), 51 Envtl. L. Rep. 10785-10804 (2021). Full Text
    • Designing Regulation Across Organizations: Assessing the Functions and Dimensions of Governance (with Robert L. Glicksman), Reg. & Governance S102-S122 (2021). (peer reviewed). Full Text
    • Structured to Fail: Lessons from The Trump Administration’s Faulty Pandemic Planning and Response (with Robert L. Glicksman), 10 Mich. J. Envtl. & Admin 329-81 (2021). Full Text
    • De- and Re-constructing Public Governance for Biodiversity Conservation, 73 Vand. L. Rev. 1585-1641 (2020). Full Text
    • Beyond Preemption, Toward Metropolitan Governance (with Nicholas J. Marantz), 39 Stan. Envtl. L.J. 125-198 (2020). Full Text
    • The Trump Card: Tarnishing Planning, Democracy, and the Environment (with Robert L. Glicksman), 50 Envtl. L. Rep. 10281-89 (2020). Full Text
    • Bulldozing Infrastructure Planning and the Environment through Trump’s Executive Order 13807, 91 U. Colo. L. Rev. 511 (2020). Full Text
    • Mitigating Climate Change through Transportation and Land Use Policy (with Melissa L. Kelly, Nicholas J. Marantz, and Gabriel Weil), 49 Envtl. L. Rep. 10473-92 (2019). Full Text
    • Improving Water Quality and Ecosystem Health in California’s Marine Managed Areas (with Elizabeth Taylor and Stephanie Talavera), 48 Envtl. L. Rep. 10818-36 (2018). Full Text
    • Assessing State Laws and Resources for Endangered Species Protection (with Michael Robinson-Dorn, Asena Yildiz, and Tara Teegarden), 47 Envtl. L. Rep. 10837 (2017). Full Text
    • Legal Adaptive Capacity: How Program Goals and Processes Shape Federal Land Adaptation to Climate Change (with Robert L. Glicksman), 87 U. Colo. L. Rev. 711-826 (2016). Full Text
    • Emerging Regulatory Experiments in Permit Process Coordination for Endangered Species and Aquatic Resources in California (with Elizabeth Taylor, Melissa Kelly, & Stephanie Talavera), 46 Envtl. L. Rep. 10131 (2016). Full Text
    • Lessons from Area-Wide Multi-Agency Habitat Conservation Plans in California (with Elizabeth Taylor and Melissa Kelly), 46 Envtl. L. Rep. 10222 (2016). Full Text
    • Going the Way of the Dodo: De-Extinction, Dualisms, and Reframing Conservation, 92 Wash. U. L. Rev. 849-906 (2015).  (reprinted in David L. Callies & J.B. Ruhl, eds., LAND USE & ENV’T L. REV. 319-378 (Thomson Reuters 2016-2017) (peer reviewed)).
      Full Text
    • Functional Government in 3-D (with Robert L. Glicksman), 51 Harv. J. on Legis. 19-88 (2014). Full Text
    • Community Benefits Agreements: A Symptom, Not the Antidote, of Bilateral Land Use Regulation, 78 Brooklyn L. Rev. 355-383 (2013). Full Text
    • A Learning Collaboratory: Improving Federal Climate Change Adaptation Planning, 2011 BYU L. Rev. 1821-61. Full Text
    • Assisted Migration: Redefining Nature and Natural Resource Law under Climate Change, 27 Yale J. On Reg. 171-255 (2010). (reprinted in A. Daniel Tarlock & David L. Callies eds., LAND USE & ENV’T L. REV. (Thomson West 2011) (peer reviewed)).
      Full Text
    • Collaborative Planning and Adaptive Management in Glen Canyon: A Cautionary Tale (with Lawrence Susskind & Todd Schenk), 35 Colum. J. Envtl. L. 1-55 (2010). Full Text
    • Adapting Governance to Climate Change: Managing Uncertainty through a Learning Infrastructure, 59 Emory L. J. 1-77 (2009). (excerpted in JOEL A. MINTZ, ET AL., A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (CAROLINA ACADEMIC PRESS) (2017) Full Text
    • Beyond Conjecture: Learning about Ecosystem Management from the Glen Canyon Dam Experiment, 8 Nev. L. J. 942-963 (2008). (invited) Full Text
    • Can Regulation Evolve? Lessons from a Study in Maladaptive Management, 55 UCLA L. Rev. 293-358. (reprinted in J. B. RUHL, ED., PROPERTY LAW (EDWARD ELGAR PUBLISHING) (2020)).
      Full Text
    • Mustering the Missing Voices: A Collaborative Model for Fostering Equality, Community Involvement and Adaptive Planning in Land Use Decisions, Installment Two, 24 Stan. Envtl. L.J. 269- (2005). (reprinted in Patricia Salkin ed., ZONING & PLAN. L. HANDBOOK 945-1017 (Thomson West 2006) (peer reviewed)).
      Full Text
    • Mustering the Missing Voices: A Collaborative Model for Fostering Equality, Community Involvement and Adaptive Planning in Land Use Decisions, Installment One, 24 Stan. Envtl. L.J. 3-69 (2005). (reprinted in A. Daniel Tarlock & David L Callies eds., LAND USE & ENV’T L. REV. 119-181 (Thomson West 2006) (peer reviewed)) (reprinted in Patricia Salkin ed., ZONING & PLAN. L. HANDBOOK 863-943 (Thomson West 2006) (peer reviewed)).
      Full Text

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