Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty
Richard B. Collins

Professor of Law
Constitutional Law; Indian Law; Property

University of Colorado Law School
426 Wolf Law Building
401 UCB
Boulder, CO  80309-0401
Phone: (303) 492-5493
E-mail: richard.collins@colorado.edu

Curriculum Vitae:  View (PDF format)

Educational Background:
LL.B.   Harvard Law School   1966  
B.A.   Yale University   1960  

Bio:
Richard Collins spent 15 years practicing Indian law with organizations such as California Rural Legal Assistance, California Indian Legal Services, Dinebeiina Nahiilna Be Agaditahe in Window Rock, Arizona, and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). Since joining the faculty, Professor Collins has continued work as a pro bono consultant to NARF and to Native American tribes, including the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. During the course of his appellate work, he has had a major role in several important Indian law decisions, including United States Supreme Court decisions such as McClanahan v. Arizona Tax Commission, 421 U.S. 164 (1973). His scholarship also focuses on constitutional issues, and he was Director of the law school's Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law from 2002 to 2010. Professor Collins has written and lectured on such topics as the religion clauses and their relationship to Indian Tribes, the Commerce Clause, and ballot initiatives and referendums. His recent research projects include a treatise on the Colorado Constitution, written with Dale Oesterle, an article on sacred sites on government lands in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, the current revision of Felix Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law, and an article in the Colorado Law Review on lawmaking by citizens' initiatives.


Published Books

Collins (with Oesterle), The Colorado State Constitution with Historical and Interpretive Commentary, (2002).
Collins (with others), Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law, (1982).

Articles

Propaganda for War and Transparency, 87 Denv. U. L. Rev. 819 (2010) (Symposium: Government Speech)..
Affirmative Action in American Constitutional Law, translated into Chinese by Xu Tieying and published in the Chinese language journal, VII Roman Law and Modern Civil Law 367 (Xu Guodong ed., 2010)..
Telluride's Tale of Eminent Domain, Home Rule, and Retroactivity, 86 Den. U. L. Rev. 1433 (symposium). (2009).
The Colorado Constitution in the New Century, 78 U. Colo. L. Rev. 1265 (2007).
A Brief History of the U.S.-American Indian Nations Relationship, Hum. Rts., Spring 2006, at 3 (2006).
Collins (with Karla D. Miller), A People Without Law, 5 Indigenous L.J. 83 (2006).
Sacred Sites and Religious Freedom on Government Land, 5 U. Penn. J. Const. L. 241 (2003).
Western Justice, 112 Yale L.J. 975 (a tribute to Justice White) (2003).
How Democratic Are Initiatives?, 72 U. Colo. L. Rev. 983 (2001).

Book Reviews

Book Review, 50 Am. J. Legal Hist. 105 (Jan. 2008-2010), (reviewing David J. Bederman, The Classical Foundations of the American Constitution: Prevailing Wisdom (2008)).
38(11) Colo. Law. 101 (Nov. 2009), (reviewing American Indian Law Deskbook, 4th ed.) (2008).
Book Review, 39(2) W. Hist. Q. 218 (reviewing Tribal Water Rights: Essays in Contemporary Law, Policy, and Economics (John E. Thorson, Sarah Britton & Bonnie G. Colby eds., 2006) (2008).

Courses:

Fall 2013 Law and Religion LAWS 7085-001
Fall 2013 American Indian Law I LAWS 7725-001
Spring 2013 Property LAWS 5624-801
Fall 2012 Wills and Trusts LAWS 6104-001
Fall 2012 Local Government LAWS 7255-001
Fall 2011 Real Estate Transactions LAWS 6004-001
Fall 2011 American Indian Law I LAWS 7725-001
Spring 2011 Constitutional Law LAWS 6005-805
Spring 2011 Law and Religion LAWS 7085-001
Fall 2010 Local Government LAWS 7255-001
Spring 2010 Property II LAWS 5634-801
Spring 2010 Constitutional Law LAWS 6005-805
Fall 2009 Property LAWS 5624-802
Spring 2009 Property II LAWS 5634-801
Spring 2009 Wills and Trusts LAWS 6104-001