Joseph Sax

{{short description|American lawyer (1936–2014)}}

{{infobox person

|name=Joseph Sax

|birth_name=Joseph Lawrence Sax

|birth_date={{birth date|1936|2|3}}

|birth_place=Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|2014|3|9|1936|2|3}}

|education=Harvard University
University of Chicago Law School (JD)

|occupation={{flatlist|

• Lawyer
• environmental law professor

}}

|known_for=Developing the public trust doctrine

|awards=Blue Planet Prize (2007)

}}

Joseph Lawrence Sax (February 3, 1936 – March 9, 2014) was an American environmental law professor, known for developing the public trust doctrine.Douglas Martin, [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/us/joseph-l-sax-who-pioneered-legal-protections-for-natural-resources-dies-at-78.html "Joseph Sax, Who Pioneered Environmental Law, Dies at 78"] (obituary), New York Times, March 10, 2014.

Born and raised in Chicago, Sax graduated from Harvard University in 1957 and then earned a J.D. degree in 1959 from the University of Chicago Law School. After a few years in private practice and at the Department of Justice he began teaching, first with the University of Colorado in 1962 and then at the University of Michigan in 1965. He joined the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1986.[http://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/faculty/facultyProfile.php?facID=141 Joseph L. Sax] (faculty profile), Berkeley Law (last visited March 11, 2014).

From 1994 to 1996, Sax worked with the Clinton Administration under Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.

Sax was involved in environmental and conservation law from early in his career, working with the Sierra Club in Colorado. drafting Michigan's environmental law (known as the "Sax Act")"Boalt Mourns Loss of Joseph Sax and Henry Ramsey, Jr. '63", Boalt Hall eNews, April 2014. and working on a variety of water resource cases in California.Dan Farber, [http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Berkeley-Law-environmental-law-3361107.php "Berkeley Law: Environmental Law"], SFGate, Feb. 26, 2012.

It was while he was teaching law students at the University of Colorado that he realized that there was no satisfactory theory accounting for the public interest in natural resources law, and that his work was "grooming lawyers who might one day help companies extract resources, mainly from public lands."