Distinguished professor to discuss water and property rights in inaugural lecture

LAWRENCE — Robin Kundis Craig, the Robert A. Schroeder Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Kansas, is among the top 20 most cited scholars in administrative and environmental law. Her expertise includes climate change adaptation, water law, the Clean Water Act, ocean and coastal law, and ecological resilience.

Craig will focus on the topic of water and land issues for her inaugural distinguished professor lecture, “Just Add Water: Private Property Rights and Environmental Protection in a Panarchical Reality,” at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Kansas Room of the Kansas Union.

Individuals can register to attend the lecture in person or via livestream. A recording of the lecture will be posted afterward on the Office of Faculty Affairs website for those unable to attend.

In her lecture, Craig will examine the history of private property law and its effects on public health and welfare, specifically the increasing value placed on atomistic views of property — the idea that the material world is composed of minute particles. These views privilege individual parcels over land as a complex adaptive system. She will focus on the exception to this trend, exploring how the law governing property adjacent to water has been recognized through a combination of federal and state sovereign prerogatives, balancing public and private rights, and how private land use affects communities.

“From a climate change adaptation perspective, we need to be able, legally, to treat land as part of the multiple systems at multiple scales that it truly is,” Craig said.

The United States has always recognized that reality for riparian land, particularly when land borders navigable rivers, Craig said, and noted that scientists are beginning to identify the many more subtle connections among individual properties.

“When you buy a riparian property, you know you are becoming a part of a connected community,” Craig said. “But the same is true for any parcel of real property, and our failure to recognize that fact has led to a lot of environmental problems and loss of ecosystem function.”

In addition to being named a top-20 most cited scholar in administrative and environmental law in 2024, Craig was recognized as a top-25 most cited scholar in environmental and energy law in 2021. She has delivered several keynote addresses related to environmental law and has earned top article honors recently in the Land Use and Environmental Law Review and Environmental Law and Policy Review. In 2023, the Regulatory Review recognized Craig’s co-authored article “The Supreme Court’s Wetland Saga Continues” as a top contributor essay of the year.

Craig has written, co-written, edited or co-edited 13 books and has published five reports for committees of the National Research Council and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. She has also contributed more than 50 book chapters and over 150 articles to legal and scientific journals. 

Craig earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Pomona College, a master’s degree in writing about science from Johns Hopkins University, a doctorate in English literature from the University of California and a juris doctor, summa cum laude, with a certificate in environmental law from the Lewis & Clark Law School. Craig came to KU in 2024 and was previously a professor and Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in law at the University of Southern California (USC), where she was awarded the Clyde O. Martz Teaching Award in 2022.

“I’m very grateful to KU and the School of Law for naming me a distinguished professor as part of my move here,” Craig said. “As a gesture of welcome, it made me feel appreciated and secure in my decision to leave USC. I hope that I continue to fulfill KU’s confidence in and expectations for me and my work.”

The first distinguished professorships were established at KU in 1958. A university distinguished professorship is awarded wholly based on merit, following exacting criteria. A complete list is available on the Distinguished Professor website.