It is our pleasure to introduce Ecology Law Quarterly’s 2017–18 Annual Review of Environmental and Natural Resource Law. In its nineteenth year, the Annual Review is the product of collaboration among the student authors, ELQ’s editors, Berkeley Law’s environmental law faculty, and the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment.
Giula Gualco-Nelson and Elissa Walter, both of whom will soon be members of the bar, served as teaching assistants and advisors to the authors. They dedicated themselves to helping the authors master developing areas of the law and craft interesting and compelling papers. The now-graduated ELQ Co- Editors-in-Chief, Emily Renda and Wil Mumby, orchestrated the Annual Review’s publication process. The incoming Co-Editors-in-Chief, Stephanie Phillips and Craig Spencer, have seen the issue through to final publication. We are grateful for their efforts.
But the most enthusiastic recognition must go to the authors, without whom the Annual Review would not exist. Researching in an unsettled area of the law, developing a thesis, and drafting a scholarly work over the course of a single academic year is no easy feat. We applaud their hard work.
The Annual Review also features a Book Review and In Brief comments on recent appellate decisions written by students in the midst of their first year at Berkeley Law. We commend these authors for their efforts during their very busy 1L and LL.M. year.
Law professors, students, legal historians, and countless other scholars seeking insight into the major developments in environmental, natural resource, and land use law during the past year will benefit from this Annual Review. We were honored to have the opportunity to work with the authors.
This year’s contributions to the Annual Review critique developments emanating from the White House, the U.S. Supreme Court, three federal courts of appeals, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the New Zealand legislature. We do believe, however, that several themes emerge as described below.
