Michael Pappas

Professor of Law
Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Research
John H. Schultz Energy and Natural Resources Law Fellow

401 UCB
2450 Kittredge Loop Drive
Wolf Law Building
Boulder, CO  80309
Office: 403
Phone: (303) 735-0277
E-mail: michael.pappas@colorado.edu

Bio:
Michael Pappas is a Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School. Professor Pappas teaches primarily in the areas of property, natural resource, and environmental law. His scholarship draws upon interdisciplinary influences associated with economics and political economy, and his work explores the nature of property expectations, governmental responsibilities, and private rights in managing resources such as land, energy, water, wildlife, fisheries, and food.

Prior to joining CU, Professor Pappas spent a decade on the faculty of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where he served as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development from 2017-2020 and where he was voted Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year in 2014. Professor Pappas was also a Visiting Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center in 2021, and he has taught at Tulane University Law School and Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

Professor Pappas holds bachelor's and master's degrees in English Literature from Stanford University, and he received his J.D. from Stanford Law School. He clerked for the Hon. James L. Dennis, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Articles

Prevention and Cure, 54 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1067 (2021).
Pappas (with Victor B. Flatt), Climate Changes Property: Disasters, Decommodification, and Retreat, 82 Ohio St. L. J. 331 (2021).
Pappas (with Victor B. Flatt), The Costs of Creating Environmental Markets: A Commodification Primer, 9 UC Irvine L. Rev. 731 (2019).
Disclaiming Property, 42 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 392 (2018).
A Right to Be Regulated?, 24 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 99 (2016).
Singled Out, 76 Md. L. Rev. 122 (2016).
The Armstrong Evolution, 76 Md. L. Rev. Endnotes 35 (2016).
Defining Power Property Expectations, 45 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. L. Inst.) 10542 (2015).
Distributed, Nega-, and Reclaimed: Setting Expectations in the "New" Resource Base, 32 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 471 (2015).
Anti-Waste, 56 Ariz. L. Rev. 741 (2014).
Energy Versus Property, 41 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 435 (2014).
Pappas (with Mark S. Davis), Escaping the Sporhase Maze: Protecting State Waters Within the Commerce Clause, 73 La. L. Rev. 175 (2012).
Unnatural Resource Law: Situating Desalination in Coastal Resource and Water Law Doctrines, 86 Tul. L. Rev. 81 (2011).
No Two-Stepping in the Laboratories: State Deference Standards and Their Implications for Improving the Chevron Doctrine, 39 McGeorge L. Rev. 977 (2008).
Buying the Way to a Better Gulf Fishery: Buybacks for Hurricane Relief and Fisheries Rationalization in the Gulf of Mexico, 36 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. L. Inst.) 10800 (2006).

Courses:

Fall 2025 Foundations of Natural Resources Law LAWS 6112-801
Spring 2025 Property LAWS 5624-801
Fall 2024 Foundations of Natural Resources Law LAWS 6112-801
Spring 2024 Property LAWS 5624-801
Fall 2023 Foundations of Natural Resources Law LAWS 6112-801
Fall 2023 Climate Change Law and Policy LAWS 6712-801
Spring 2023 Property LAWS 5624-801
Fall 2022 Foundations of Natural Resources Law LAWS 6112-801



Our Vision

With our roots in Colorado and a global outlook, we are ...

a supportive and diverse educational and scholarly community in a place that inspires vigorous pursuit of ideas, critical analysis, contemplation, and civic engagement to advance knowledge about the law in an open, just society.

Our Mission

To be an outstanding public law school that: provides students with a state-of-the-art legal education and prepares them to serve wisely and with professionalism; advances the development of knowledge through scholarship, testing of new ideas, and challenges to the status quo; and serves as a vehicle and catalyst for meaningful public service, all of which deliver high value to our students and have positive impacts?both locally and globally?on the legal profession and society.