Christine A. Klein
Cone, Wagner, Nugent, Hazouri & Roth Professor
Professor of Law
Email:
kleinc@law.ufl.edu
Phone:
(352) 273-0964
Expertise
About
Professor Klein served as the Cone, Wagner, Nugent, Hazouri & Roth Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she has been on the faculty since 2003. Klein writes in the areas of water law, natural resources law, and property. Her work includes more than thirty academic articles and has been cited in judicial and administrative opinions at both the federal and state levels. She is also the author of three books: Natural Resources Law: A Place-Based Book of Problems and Cases (Wolters Kluwer/Aspen Publishers 5th ed. forthcoming 2022) (with Birdsong, Klass, Biber, Singel & Owen); Property Law: Cases, Problems, and Skills (sole author, Wolters Kluwer/Aspen Publishers 2d ed. 2020); and Mississippi River Tragedies: A Century of Unnatural Disaster (NYU Press, 2014) (with Sandra Zellmer).
Professor Klein began her career as a water rights litigator in the Colorado Office of the Attorney General. Prior to joining the UF Law faculty, Klein served on the faculty of Michigan State University College of Law and directed its environmental law certificate program. She received a B.A. from Middlebury College in Vermont; a J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School; and an LL.M. from Columbia University Law School. Her legal experience includes positions as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court, District of Colorado; as a law clerk for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Office of Staff Attorneys (San Francisco summer position); and as a clerk at Goodwin Proctor (formerly Shea & Gardner) in Washington, D.C.
Professor Klein has served on two committees of the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, that studied sustainable water and environmental management in the California Bay-Delta, and she is a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform, based in Washington, D.C.
Education
LL.M., Columbia University School of Law (New York)
J.D., University of Colorado
B.A., Middlebury College (magna cum laude)
Teaching & Scholarship
Natural Resources Law, Water Law, Property
Courses
- Property
Publications
Books
- Natural Resources Law: A Place-Based Book of Problems and Cases (5th ed., Aspen Publishers forthcoming 2022) (with Federico Cheever, Bret Birdsong, Alexandra Klass & Eric Biber).
- Property: Cases, Problems, and Skills (Aspen Publishers, 2d ed. 2020)
- Natural Resources Law: A Place-Based Book of Problems and Cases (Aspen Publishers, 4th ed. 2018) (lead author, with Cheever, Birdsong, Klass & Biber)
- Mississippi River Tragedies: A Century of Unnatural Disaster (with Sandra B. Zellmer) (NYU Press, 2014) (describing floods and hurricanes on the Mississippi from its headwaters to its delta and exploring policy implications for areas including environmental justice, wetlands protection, agricultural policy, federal subsidies, flood control, flood insurance, and regulatory takings law) [Introduction]
Book Chapters
- “Floods as Unnatural Disasters: The Role of Law,” in Western Water Policy and Planning in a Variable and Changing Climate (Kathleen A. Miller, et al. eds.) (CRC Press, 2018) (with Sandra Zellmer)
- “Survey of Florida Water Law” in Waters and Water Rights (Robert E. Beck, ed.) (Matthew Bender & Co., Inc.) (entry and annual updates, 2005-2011)
Articles
- Groundwater Exceptionalism: The Disconnect Between Law and Science, 71 Emory L.J. (forthcoming 2021) [SSRN]
- The National Flood Insurance Program at Fifty: How the Fifth Amendment Takings Doctrine Skews Federal Flood Policy, 31 Georgetown Envtl. L. Rev. 285 (2019) [SSRN]
- Owning Groundwater, 35 Virginia Envtl. L.J. 474 (2017) [SSRN]
- Climate Change and Water Transfers, (with Jesse Reiblich), 41 Pepp. L. Rev. 405 (2014) [SSRN]
- Compartmentalized Thinking and the Clean Water Act, 4 Geo. Wash. J. Energy & Envtl. L. 38 (2013) [SSRN]
- Water Bankruptcy, 97 Minnesota Law Review 560 (2012) [SSRN]
- The Dormant Commerce Clause and Water Export: Toward a New Analytical Paradigm, 35 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 131 (2011) [SSRN]
- The Environmental Deficit: Applying Lessons from the Economic Recession, 51 Ariz. L. Rev. 651 (2009) [SSRN]
- Modernizing Water Law: The Example of Florida (with Angelo & Hamann), 61 Fla. L. Rev. 403 (2009) [SSRN]
- Cultural Norms as a Source of Law: The Example of Bottled Water (with Ling-Yee Huang), 30 Cardozo L. Rev. 507 (2008) [SSRN]
- Water Transfers: The Case Against Transbasin Diversions in the Eastern States, 25 UCLA J. Envtl. L. & Pol’y 249 (2007) [SSRN]
- The New Nuisance: An Antidote to Wetland Loss, Sprawl, and Global Warming, 48 B.C. L. Rev. 1155 (2007) [SSRN]
- Mississippi River Stories: Lessons from a Century of Unnatural Disasters (with Sandra B. Zellmer), 60 SMU L. Rev. 1471 (2007) [SSRN]
- The Law of the Lakes: From Protectionism to Sustainability (symposium), 2006 Mich. St. L. Rev. 1259 , reprinted in ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: PRINCIPLES AND GOVERNANCE (A..Usha, ed., Icfai University Press, India, 2007) [SSRN]
- On Integrity: Some Considerations for Water Law, 56 Ala. L. Rev. 1009 (2005) [SSRN]
- The Environmental Commerce Clause, 27 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 1 (2003) [SSRN]
Miscellaneous
- “Midwestern Flooding Isn’t a Natural Disaster,” in The Atlantic, Mar. 21, 2019 (solicited essay) [available here]
- “Missouri River Floodplain Owners Seeking a ‘Double-Take’ from the Taxpayers,” (with Sandra Zellmer) in Center for Progressive Reform Blog (2014)
- “Natural Floods, Unnatural Disasters,” (with Sandra Zellmer) in The Hill (2014)
- “Christine A. Klein on Tarrant Regional Water District v. Herrmann, 133 S. Ct. 2120 (2013),” 2013 Emerging Isues. 7075 (2013)
- “The Lesson of Tarrant Regional Water District v. Herrmann: Water Conservation, not Water Commerce,” in Center for Progressive Reform Blog (2013)
- Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta (co-author as member of National Research Council Committee on Sustainable Water and Environmental Management in the California Bay-Delta) (2012)
- A Review of the Use of Science and Adaptive Management in California’s Draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan (co-author as member of Panel to Review California’s Draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan) (National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011)