John C. Dernbach is an environmentalist

Environmentalist

An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...

, lawyer and distinguished professor of law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 at Widener University

Widener University

Widener University is a private, coeducational university located in Chester, Pennsylvania.Its main campus sits on 108 acres , just southwest of Philadelphia...

. He currently teaches environmental law, property law, international law, international environmental law, sustainability and the law, and climate change.

Positions

John Dernbach, since graduating from law school

Law school

A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...

 at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...

, has centered his career on environmental and legal issues. Over the course of his career, Dernbach has held several important positions and has written a large body of work that has had significant influence on issues relating to the law and the environment. His work with environmental law and sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

 has been widely praised by academics and politicians alike. He began his environmental work in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 where he regulated coal and non-coal mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 and served as Pennsylvania's director of the Advanced Science and Research Team. Later, Dernbach was a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law and served as the chair of the American Bar Association

American Bar Association

The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...

's Committee on Climate Change, Sustainable Development, and Ecosystems. He also worked with the National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

 Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability.

Legal and Environmental Writing

Dernbach has been the author of several important legal texts, most notably, A Practical Guide to Legal Writing & Legal Method which is widely considered to be the classic text on the subject and is currently in its fourth edition. Dernbach is also the editor of Agenda For a Sustainable America, a highly influential collection of essays on environmental sustainability that has received praise from several leading academics and politicians including Russ Feingold

Russ Feingold

Russell Dana "Russ" Feingold is an American politician from the U.S. state of Wisconsin. He served as a Democratic party member of the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 2011. From 1983 to 1993, Feingold was a Wisconsin State Senator representing the 27th District.He is a recipient of the John F...

, Fred Krupp

Fred Krupp

Fred Krupp is the president of Environmental Defense Fund, a United States-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group.Krupp is a graduate of Yale University with a law degree from the University of Michigan and has taught environmental law at both schools....

, James Gustave Speth, Paul R. Ehrlich

Paul R. Ehrlich

Paul Ralph Ehrlich is an American biologist and educator who is the Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University and president of Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology. By training he is an entomologist specializing in Lepidoptera , but...

 and Donald Kennedy

Donald Kennedy

Donald Kennedy is an American scientist, public administrator and academic.Donald Kennedy was born in New York and educated at Harvard University...

. Stumbling Towards Sustainability, Dernbach's 2002 book, sought to map U.S. progress regarding environmental policy. Dernbach also coauthored the amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark case Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency.

Articles

• The “Cash for Clunkers” Program: A Sustainability Evaluation, 42 TOL. L. REV. 467 (2011) (with Marianne Tyrrell).
• Creating the Law of Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development, 28 PACE ENVTL. L. REV. 614 (2011).
• Energy Efficiency and Conservation: New Legal Tools and Opportunities, Natural Resources and Environment, Spring 2011, at 7 (with Robert B. McKinstry, Jr. & Darin Lowder).
• The Essential and Growing Role of Legal Education in Achieving Sustainability, 60 Journal of Legal Education 489 (2011).
• Making the States Full Partners in a National Climate Change Effort: A Necessary Element for Sustainable Economic Development, 40 Environmental Law Reporter (Envtl. L. Inst.) 10539 (2010) (with Robert B. McKinstry, Jr. and Thomas D. Peterson).
• The Ethical Responsibility to Reduce Energy Consumption, 37 Hofstra Law Review 985 (2009) (with Donald A. Brown).
• An Agenda for Sustainable Communities, 4 Houston Environment & Energy Law & Policy Journal 170 (2009).
• Navigating the U.S. Transition to Sustainability: Matching National Governance Challenges with Appropriate Legal Tools, 44 Tulsa Law Review 93 (2008).
• Achieving Early and Substantial Greenhouse Gas Reductions Under a Post-Kyoto Agreement, 20 Georgetown International Environmental Law Review 573 (2008).
• Federal Climate Change Legislation as if the States Matter, Natural Resources and Environmental Law, Winter 2008, at 3 (with Robert B. McKinstry, Jr. & Thomas D. Peterson).