Levin College of Law

Alex Erwin

Associate Professor of Law

About

Professor John A. (Alex) Erwin is an Associate Professor of Law at University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Combining his legal training with his background as a wildlife biologist, Professor Erwin’s research is situated at the intersection of environmental law, genetics, and conservation biology. As a scientist, he has experience doing field work, wet lab genetics, and bioinformatics. He has worked with a variety of species, from freshwater mussels to jaguars. Professor Erwin’s legal scholarship covers topics such as federal endangered species law, genetic engineering for conservation, and state management of predators. His publication record spans both peer-reviewed scientific journals and more traditional law reviews, including Cornell Law Review, Utah Law Review, Ecology Law Currents, and the Environmental Law Reporter.

Professor Erwin’s scholarship has been nationally recognized. He was selected as the 2023 Stegner Center Young Scholar of the Year in Environmental Law at the S. J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. His article, Building Better Species, was selected for presentation at the Harvard | Stanford | Yale Junior Faculty Forum, the Northwestern, Penn, and Stanford Junior Faculty Forum for Law and STEM, and the Sabin Colloquium for Innovative Environmental Law Scholarship at Columbia Law School. Building Better Species was also the winner of the Call for Papers Award at SEALS 2023. Additionally, Professor Erwin’s article, Hybridizing Law, was recognized with an Honorable Mention in the 2018 Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR) as one of the top environmental policy-relevant articles from 2016-2017. His scientific work has also been awarded, with an article on red shiner sex determination winning the 2023 Publication Award from the American Fisheries Society.

Professor Erwin received his J.D. (2018) from the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. He graduated magna cum laude with a certificate in Environmental Law, Science, and Policy and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. During law school, he was the Articles Editor of the Arizona Journal of Environmental Law and Policy and held the Sol Resnick Water Resources Fellowship, Agnese Nelms Haury Social Justice Law Fellowship, and the Carson Scholars Institute of the Environment Fellowship. He also earned his B.S. in Biology and Biochemistry at Washington and Lee University (2013), and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Interdisciplinary Department in Genetics (2020) at the University of Arizona.

Prior to joining the University of Florida, Professor Erwin was an Assistant Professor of Law at Florida International University College of Law, where he was named the 2024 Megan A. Fairlie Professor of the Year. He was also previously a Visiting Assistant Professor in Environmental Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and a Teaching Fellow and Professor of Practice at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona.

Education

Ph.D., Genetics, University of Arizona
J.D., University of Arizona
B.S., Biology and Biochemistry, Washington and Lee University

Scholarship

Conservation Genomics
Endangered Species Act
Genetic Engineering
Wildlife Conservation and Management

Teaching

Biodiversity Law
Environmental Law
Science for Lawyers
Natural Resources Law
Torts

Publications

Law Review Articles

  • Litigating Predator Management, 2025 Utah L. Rev. 97 (2025).
  • Building Better Species: Assisted Evolution, Genetic Engineering, and the Endangered Species Act, 108 Cornell L. Rev. 1117 (2023).
  • So You Want to Be an Environmental Law Professor …: An Empirical Analysis of the Environmental Law Hiring Market from 2011 – 2022, 49 Ecology L. Currents 37 (2022).
  • Feeding the World: How Changes in Biotech Regulation Can Jump Start the Second Green Revolution and Diversify the Agricultural Industry 44 Wm. & Mary Envtl. L. & Pol’y Rev. 327 (2020) (with Robert Glennon).
  • Hybridizing Law: A Policy for Hybridization Under the Endangered Species Act, 47 Envtl. L. Rep. News & Analysis 10615 (2017).

Peer-Reviewed Scientific Publications

  • Payne, N, Pawlicki, A.J., Wisely, E., Vargas, K.L., Erwin, J.A., Culver, M., & Goode, M., Early signals of fragmentation of flat-tailed horned lizards in the Yuma Desert, Conservation Genetics (2025), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-025-01691-5.
  • Erwin, J.A., Logan, K.A., Trumbo, D., Funk, W.C., Culver, M., Effects of hunting on mating, relatedness, and genetic diversity in a puma population, 33 Molecular Ecology e17237 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17237.
  • Payne, N., Erwin, J.A., Morrison, J., Dwyer, J., Culver, M., Genomic insights into isolation of the threatened Florida crested caracara (Caracara planicus). 115 J. Heredity 45 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esad057.
  • Teal, C.N., Coykendal, D.K., Campbell, M.R., Delomas, T.A., Eardley, D.L., Erwin, J.A., Schill, D.J., Bauder, J.M., Bonar, S.A., Culver, M, The development of genetic sex identification markers and evidence of a male heterogametic sex determination system in red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis) 85 N. Am. J. Aquaculture 74 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1002/naaq.10274.
  • Erwin, J.A., Fitak, R.R., Culver, M. 2021. PumaPlex100: An Expanded Tool for Puma SNP Genotyping with Low-yield DNA. 13 Conservation Genetics Res. 341 (2021), https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-021-01206-7.
  • Erwin, J.A., Vargas, K., Blais, B.R., Bennett, K., Muldoon, J., Findysz, S., Christie, C., Heffelfinger, J.R., Culver, M. Genetic Assessment of a Bighorn Sheep Population Expansion in the Silver Bell Mountains, Arizona. PeerJ 6:e5978 (2018), https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5978.
  • Erwin, J.A., Fitak, R.R., Dwyer, J.F., Morrison, J.L., Culver, M., Molecular Detection of Bacteria in the Families Rickettsiaceae and Anaplasmataceae in Northern Crested Caracaras (Caracara cheriway), 7 Ticks & Tick-borne Diseases 470 (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2016.01.015.

Books

  • Biodiversity Laws, Policies, and Science in Europe, the United States and China (2024) (Eds. Giovanni Antonelli, Tianbao Qin, Maria Vittoria Ferroni, and John A. Erwin), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-56218-1.

Book Chapters

  • Changing Genes for a Changing Climate: Genetic Intervention as a Tool for Biodiversity Conservation in the Era of Climate Changein Research Handbook on Climate Change and Biodiversity Law (Eds. Richard Caddell and Phillipa McCormack) (2024).
  • Predator Law in the United States, in Biodiversity Laws, Policies, and Science in Europe, the United States and China (2024) (Eds. Giovanni Antonelli, Tianbao Qin, Maria Vittoria Ferroni, and John A. Erwin).