Jill Fraley delivers a free, public lecture as part of the Intra-Disciplinary Seminar series. Progressive property theory replaced individual rights with more community-oriented models. Unfortunately, these approaches have altered doctrines in ways that change the geographical scales at issue and prevent using common law to remedy important environmental harms—particularly those related to the use of fossil fuels and the continuing harms of climate change. 

A graduate of Yale University, with her J.D. from Duke University School of Law, and her LL.M. and J.S.D. from Yale Law School, Dr. Jill Fraley is a legal historian who focuses her research on property and environmental issues. She writes primarily on the evolution of property and tort law in England, Ireland, and the U.S, as well as the ownership of key mineral and water rights. Her work has won the American Association of Law Schools’ national Scholarly Paper Award, the Arthur Cox Visiting Research Fellowship at Trinity College Dublin, as well as a Fulbright scholar’s award for Ireland. 

The Spring 2019 IDS Lecture Series at The Cooper Union is organized by Leslie Hewitt and Omar Berrada. The IDS Public Lecture Series is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding and support from the Robert Lehman Foundation for the series. The IDS Public Lecture Series is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.