Faculty & Administration View All
The source of our community, and the source of NDLS’s distinctiveness, is its Catholic character. As an evangelical Protestant, I am more comfortable at NDLS than any other school that I can imagine. NDLS encourages the integration of faith into teaching, scholarship, and our community life. That enables me to study biblical perspectives on land and ownership in my property class; to write about John Calvin’s references to “spiritual pollution�
John Copeland Nagle
John N. Matthews Professor of Law
Office Number: 216 Law School
Telephone: 574.631.9407
Fax: 574.631.8078
Email: John.C.Nagle.8@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Gloria Krull
John Copeland Nagle was named the John N. Matthews Professor in 2005. He joined the law faculty as an associate professor of law in 1998 and became a full professor in 2001. He was the law school’s inaugural Associate Dean for Faculty Research from 2004 to 2007.
Professor Nagle is the co-author of casebooks on “Property Law” and “The Law of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management,” and of a forthcoming environmental law casebook. His book “Law’s Environment: How Environmental Law Affects the Environment,” will be published by Yale University Press in 2008. He is also writing a book comparing environmental pollution, cultural pollution, and other kinds of “pollution.” His other writings have explored such topics as the relationship between religion and environmental law, the scope of congressional power to protect endangered species, alternative approaches to campaign finance reform, and the competing roles of Congress and the courts in correcting statutory mistakes. His articles on environmental law, statutory interpretation, and election law have been published in journals such as the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the New York University Law Review.
Professor Nagle teaches a number of courses related to environmental law, legislation, and property. In 2002, he received a Distinguished Lectureship award from the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to teach environmental law and property law at the Tsinghua University Law School in Beijing. He has received another Fulbright award to teach environmental law at Fudan University in Shanghai during the spring of 2008. Professor Nagle has lectured on environmental, legislation, and property issues at numerous forums in the United States, Canada, China, and Hungary.
Prior to joining the Notre Dame faculty, Professor Nagle was an associate professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law from 1994 through 1998. He also worked in the United States Department of Justice, first as an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel where he advised other executive branch agencies on a variety of constitutional and statutory issues, and later as a trial attorney conducting environmental litigation. Professor Nagle served as a law clerk to Judge Deanell Reece Tacha of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and he was a scientific assistant in the Energy and Environmental Systems Division of Argonne National Laboratory. He is a graduate of Indiana University and the University of Michigan Law School.
Professor Nagle has participated in numerous activities outside of the law school. He has served as a member of the executive committee of the Section on Legislation of the American Association of Law Schools, and as a vice chair on the Endangered Species Committee of the American Bar Association’s environmental section. He helps organize the annual meeting of the Law Professors’ Christian Fellowship. He has served as an elder in the Presbyterian church and is an active member of the South Bend Christian Reformed Church. He is the faculty adviser for the Christian Law Students, the Journal on Legislation, and Young Life.
His wife Lisa is involved in various educational activities involving China, while his two young daughters Laura and Julia learned more Chinese language than Professor Nagle did while living in Beijing.
About The John N. Matthews Chair in Law
The John N. Matthews Chair in Law was established in 1967 by Notre Dame Trustee Donald J. Matthews in memory of his father, John N. Matthews. The late Captain John N. Matthews was a ship’s master who in 1929 founded his own marine cargo firm in New York City the Universal Terminal & Stevedoring Corp. from which he retired in 1957.
Donald J. Matthews, a 1955 graduate of Notre Dame, is chairman and chief executive officer of Capital Markets Access Ltd., an insurance holding company headquartered in Bermuda. He was elected to the Notre Dame Board of Trustees in 1971 after having served on the Advisory Council for the College of Engineering. A yachtsman like his father, he sailed on the Weatherly, which successfully defended the America’s Cup in 1962.
LAW60307, Constitutional Law
LAW60906, Property
LAW70314, Legislation
LAW70348, Biodiversity and the Law
LAW70369, Election Law
LAW73327, Advanced Environmental Law
LAW75753, Journal of Legislation
Faculty Expertise Areas
Environmental law
- Endangered species and biodiversity—I have written several articles about endangered species issues, and am co_authoring the first law school casebook on the subject.
- The federal Superfund program—I have written two law review articles about the federal statute governing the cleanup of hazardous wastes, and I litigated numerous cases involving the law when I was an attorney with the Justice Department.
- Federal power to regulate the environment—I have written about whether federal environmental legislation is within the scope of congressional power under the commerce clause
- Religion and the environment—I have written an article and a book chapter on the application of Christian teachings to environmental law, and I plan to write a book on the subject in the near future.
- The environment in China—I have written about and studied efforts to protect the environment in China
- Takings—I have taught and studied the application of the Constitution’s takings clause to a variety of environmental issues
Legislation
- Statutory interpretation—I have written numerous articles on how laws should be interpreted, and I worked on similar issues when I served in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department
- Campaign finance—I have a forthcoming article in the Harvard Journal on Legislation that proposes an alternative response to the charges of corruption related to campaign contributions and legislative decisions.
- Lame duck Congresses—I wrote the first article describing how the framers of the twentieth amendment thought that they were eliminating all lame duck Congresses. My work was relied upon during the debates over the House’s power to impeach the President during a lame duck session.
- Ballot initiatives and other forms of direct democracy—I have written and taught about numerous issues related to popular lawmaking.
Property law
Books
The Practice and Policy of Environmental Law (forthcoming Foundation Press 2007) (with J.B. Ruhl & James Salzman)
The Law of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management (Foundation Press 2d ed. 2006) (with J.B. Ruhl)
The Law of Property: Cases and Materials for the Twenty-First Century (Aspen Press 2004) (with James C. Smith, Edward J. Larson & John A. Kidwell)
Questions and Answers on Property (LEXIS Publishing 2003)
The Law of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management (Foundation Press 2002) (with J.B. Ruhl)
Law Review Publications
The Spiritual Values of Wilderness, 36 Environmental Law 955 (2005).
The Appearance of Election Law, 31 The Journal of Legislation 37(2004).
How Not to Count Votes, 104 Columbia Law Review 1732 (2004).
The Lame Ducks of Marbury, 20 Constitutional Commentary 317 (2003-04)
Biodiversity and Mom, 30 Ecology L.Q. 991 (2003).
Textualism’s Exceptions, Issues in Legal Scholarship (2002)
Voter’s Intent and Its Discontents, 19 Constitutional Commentary 483 (2003)
Choosing the Judges Who Choose the President, 30 Capital University Law Review 499 (2002)
Voluntary Campaign Finance Reform, 85 Minnesota Law Review 1809 (2001)
Moral Nuisances, 50 Emory Law Journal 265 (2001)
Corruption, Pollution, and Politics, 110 Yale Law Journal 293 (2000)
The Worst Statutory Interpretation Case in History, 94 Northwestern Law Review 1445 (2000)
The Recusal Alternative to Campaign Finance Reform, 37 Harvard Journal on Legislation 69 (2000)
The Commerce Clause Meets the Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly, 97 Michigan Law Review 174 (1998)
Endangered Species Wannabees, 29 Seton Hall Law Review 235 (1998)
Playing Noah, 82 Minnesota Law Review 1171(1998)
A Twentieth Amendment Parable, 72 New York University Law Review 470 (1997)
CERCLA’s Mistakes, 38 William & Mary Law Review 1405 (1997)
Delaware & Hudson Revisited, 72 Notre Dame Law Review 1495 (1997)
Why Chinese Wildlife Disappears as CITES Spreads, 9 Georgetown International Environmental Law Review 435 (1997)
Direct Democracy and Other Hastily Enacted Statutes, 1996 Annual Survey of American Law 535 (1996)
Corrections Day, 43 UCLA Law Review 1267 (1996)
The Missing Chinese Environmental Law Statutory Interpretation Cases, 5 New York University Environmental Law Journal 517 (1996)
Waiving Sovereign Immunity in an Age of Clear Statement Rules, 1995 Wisconsin Law Review 771 (1995)
Newt Gingrich, Dynamic Statutory Interpreter, 143 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 2209 (1995)
CERCLA, Causation, and Responsibility, 78 Minnesota Law Review 1493 (1994)
Severability, 72 North Carolina Law Review 203 (1993)
Opinion Pieces and Selected Commentary
Small mistakes cause big problems, USA Today, November 21, 2006
The last acts of the lame ducks, Chicago Tribune, November 17, 2006
Distortion by the court (ND Only – NetId required), Philadelphia Inquirer, September 26, 2006
Book Chapters
Christianity and Environmental Law, in Angela Carmela, Robert Cochran & Michael McConnell, Christian Perspectives on the Law (Yale University Press 2001)
Use of Land Serving as Habitat for Rare Wildlife and Plants, in David D. Furman, Casebook on Zoning, Planning & Land Use Law in New Jersey 361 (1996 ed)
Landowner Responsibility for the Cleanup of Hazardous Wastes, in David D. Furman, Casebook on Zoning, Planning & Land Use Law in New Jersey 363 (1996 ed).
Other Publications
The Meaning of the Prohibition on Taking an Endangered Species, Briefly . . . Perspectives on Legislation, Regulation, and Litigation, vol. 1, no. 9 (Sept. 1998)
The Rule of Law in Mainland China, 14 American Asian Review 147 (1996)
Use of Land Serving as Habitat for Rare Wildlife and Plants, in David D. Furman, Casebook on Zoning, Planning & Land Use Law in New Jersey 361 (1996 ed)
Landowner Responsibility for the Cleanup of Hazardous Wastes, in David D. Furman, Casebook on Zoning, Planning & Land Use Law in New Jersey 363 (1996 ed).
Employment Benefits of Urban Synfuels Facilities, Argonne National Laboratory Report ANL/EES-TM-201 (June 1984) (with D.Wernette, K. McCarthy & D. South)
Areawide and Local Effects of Tar Sands Development at the Sunnyside Site in Utah: A Socioeconomic Analysis, Argonne National Laboratory Report ANL/EES-TM-249 (Apr. 1984) (with D.W. South, J.W. Nagle, K.J. Rose & R.C. Winter)
Indian Point Nuclear Power Station: Verification Analysis of County Radiological Emergency Response Plans, Argonne National Laboratory Report ANL/EES-TM-228 (May 1983) (with R. Whitfield)
Regional Socioeconomic Analysis of Tar Sands Development in Utah, Argonne National Laboratory Report ANL/EES-TM-245 (July 1983) (with D. South, J.W. Nagle, & R.C. Winter)
