Mary Christina Wood is the Philip H. Knight Professor of Law at the University of Oregon and teaches property law, natural resources law, public trust law and federal Indian law. She is also the faculty director of the school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program.
After graduating from Stanford Law School in 1987, Wood served as a judicial clerk on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She then practiced in the environmental/natural resources department of Perkins Coie, a Pacific Northwest law firm. In 1994 she received the University’s Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching, and in 2002 she received the Orlando Hollis Faculty Teaching Award.
Wood is a co-author of a leading textbook on natural resources law (West, 2006), and a co-author of a textbook on public trust law (Carolina Press, 2013). Her latest book, Nature’s Trust, was released in October, 2013.
She originated the approach called Atmospheric Trust Litigation to hold governments worldwide accountable for reducing carbon pollution within their jurisdictions, and her research is being used in cases and petitions brought on behalf of children and youth throughout the United States and in other countries.
Wood is a frequent speaker on global warming issues and has received national and international attention for her sovereign trust approach to global climate policy.
