Joseph Sax and the Public Trust
Inaugurated October 2003
Introduction
Few articles have by themselves created a new legal doctrine. An example was Warren & Brandeis, The Right to Privacy, 4 Harv. L. Rev. 193 (1890). But almost the only other example that comes readily to mind is the public trust doctrine created by Joseph Sax in his celebrated article in the Michigan Law Review. If Sax is correct, much private land is held, and has always been held, subject to paramount rights of the state to see that it is used in the public interest. If Sax's critics are correct, the public trust doctrine is a large scale uncompensated confiscation of private rights. In this Symposium, we have collected some of the rich literature which the doctrine has inspired.
- JAMES GORDLEY
The original Sax article has been posted here with permission of the Michigan Law Review:
Joseph L. Sax, The Public Trust Doctrine in Natural Resource Law: Effective Judicial Intervention
Articles
Public Property and the Democratization of Western Water Law: a Modern View of the Public Trust Doctrine
Michael Blumm
Mono Lake and the Evolving Public Trust in Western Water
Michael Blumm and Thea Schwartz
Trust Theory of Environmental Protection, and Some Dark Thoughts on the Possibility of Law Reform
Richard Delgado
The Public Trust: A Fundamental Doctrine of American Property Law
Harrison C. Dunning
Variation on a Theme: Expanding the Public Trust Doctrine to Include Protection of Wildlife
Gary Meyers
Joseph Sax and the Idea of the Public Trust
Carol M. Rose
The Public Trust and In-stream Uses
Jan S. Stevens