About

Professor Eric Freyfogle, a Research Professor of Law and Swanlund Chair Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, received his JD summa cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was managing editor of the Michigan Law Review. He fulfilled a military obligation by serving in the Secretary of the Army’s office as assistant to the army general counsel and then practiced law in Indianapolis for three years before joining the law faculty in 1983. He was appointed as a campus-level Swanlund Chair of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012.

Professor Freyfogle is the author or editor of more than a dozen books dealing with issues of humans and nature, some focused on legal aspects, others reaching to larger cultural and social issues. His work is broadly interdisciplinary – drawing upon history, philosophy, biological sciences, economics, and literature – and is guided by a conservation ethic that seeks better ways for humans to live in nature.

His works on conservation thought include Our Oldest Task: Making Sense of Our Place in Nature (U. Chicago Press, 2017); A Good That Transcends: How U.S. Culture Undermines Environmental Reform (U. Chicago Press, 2017); Agrarianism and the Good Society (U. Press of Kentucky, 2007); Why Conservation is Failing and How It Can Regain Ground (Yale U. Press, 2006); The New Agrarianism (Island Press, 2001) (editor); and Justice and the Earth (The Free Press, 1993; paper ed. 1995). His Bounded People, Boundless Lands: Envisioning a New Land Ethic (Island Press, 1998), was awarded the Adult Nonfiction Award of the Society of Midland Authors.

Writings focused particularly on private rights in nature include On Private Property: Finding Common Ground on the Ownership of Land (Beacon Press, 2007; paper ed. 2009) and The Land We Share: Private Property and the Common Good (Island Press, 2003; paper ed. 2011), along with the law school casebooks Natural Resources Law: Private Rights and the Public Interest (West 2015, with Blumm and Hudson); Property Law: Power, Governance, and the Common Good (West 2012, with Karkkainen) and Natural Resources Law: Private Rights and Collective Governance (West 2007). His wildlife law writings include Wildlife Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press, 2002; 2d ed. 2010 with Goble) and Wildlife Law: A Primer (Island Press, 2009; 2d ed. 2019 with Goble and Wildermuth). With environmental philosopher J. Baird Callicott, he edited Aldo Leopold, For the Health of the Land: Previously Unpublished Essays and Other Writings (1999).

His many scholarly articles have appeared in numerous publications, including the leading law reviews at Cornell, Duke, Michigan, New York University, Stanford, U.C.L.A., and Yale, and in all leading environmental law journals. His work has also appeared in publications in Australia, Brazil, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and South Africa and as chapters in over a dozen books. Recent articles and book chapters include “Public Rights in Illinois Waterways Under Federal and State Law” (2024); “The Democratic Forebodings of the ‘Right to Exclude’” (2025); “Conservation Science in the Legal Arena” (2026); “Localism and Agrarianism” (forthcoming 2027); and “Property Rights and Public Trust Along the Lake Michigan Waterfront” (forthcoming 2027).

Education

JD University of Michigan
BA Lehigh University

Areas of Expertise

Environmental Ethics
Environmental Law and Conservation
Natural Resources Law
Property Law
Water Law
Wildlife Law

Selected Publications

Wildlife Law: A Primer, 2d ed. (Island Press 2019) (with Goble and Wildermuth)

Our Oldest Task: Making Sense of Our Place in Nature (University of Chicago Press 2017)

A Good that Transcends: How U.S. Culture Undermines Environmental Reform (University of Chicago Press 2017)

Natural Resources Law: Private Rights and the Public Interest (West Academic 2015) (with Blumm and Hudson)

Property Law: Power, Governance, and the Common Good (West Academic 2012) (with Karkkainen)

Wildlife Law: Cases and Materials, 2d ed. (Foundation Press 2010) (with Goble)

On Private Property: Finding Common Ground on the Ownership of Land (Beacon Press 2007, paper ed. 2009)

Agrarianism and the Good Society: Land, Culture, Conflict and Hope (University Press of Kentucky 2007)

Why Conservation Is Failing and How It Can Regain Ground (Yale University Press 2006)

The Land We Share: Private Property and the Common Good (Island Press/Shearwater Books 2003, paper ed. 2011)

Editor, The New Agrarianism: Land, Culture, and the Community of Life (Island Press/Shearwater Books 2001)

Co-editor (with Callicott), Aldo Leopold, For the Health of the Land (Island Press/Shearwater Books 1999)

Bounded People, Boundless Lands: Envisioning and New Land Ethic (Island Press/Shearwater Books 1998)

Justice and the Earth: Images for Our Planetary Survival (Free Press 1993, paper ed. University of Illinois Press 1995)

Courses

Econ Justice and Inequality
Law Teaching Practicum
Natural Resources
Property
Scholarship of Sustainability