Burke W. Griggs
J.D., University of Kansas School of Law, 2006
Ph.D., Yale University, 1998, History
M.Phil., Yale University, 1994, History
M.A., Yale University, 1992, History
B.A., Stanford University, 1990, History
Burke Griggs is a affiliated scholar with the Bill Lane Center for the American West. He spent the 2013-14 academic year as a consulting professor at the Center. Mr. Griggs represents the State of Kansas in federal and interstate water matters, including litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court, arbitration pursuant to the Court’s decrees, and interstate compact administration. He has represented Kansas in reserved water rights litigation, in state court and in administrative hearings on water rights matters, and has advised state natural resource agencies in policy and legislation.
Mr. Griggs has written and lectured on topics in western natural resources law, especially groundwater and the connections between water law, energy law, and environmental law. A Denver native, he earned his B.A. from Stanford, his master’s degrees and Ph.D. from Yale, and his law degree from the University of Kansas, where he teaches natural resources law.
Awards
Faculty Award for Outstanding Scholastic Achievement, University of Kansas School of Law, 2006
Editor-in-Chief, Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy (2005-06)
Yale College Teaching Prize (1995)
James Birdsall Weter Prize, Stanford University (1990)
Affiliations
Western States Water Council
Board of Directors, Kansas Land Trust
American Bar Association, Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources
Publications
Representative Publications, Litigation, and Legislation
“Irrigation Communities, Political Cultures, and the Public in the Age of Depletion,” in The Rural West: Common Regional Issues, ed. David Danborn (University of Utah Press, 2014).
Kansas v. Nebraska & Colorado, No. 126 Orig., (Enforcement of the Republican River Compact and Final Settlement Stipulation) (2010 – Present).
The Republican River Compact: Federalism, the Compact, and the Serial Crises of State Water Law, 100 The Water Report 1-18 (June 2012).
Kan. Stat. Ann. 82a-1041, Local Enhanced Management Areas (L. 2012, ch. 62, § 1, 2012).
Kan. Stat. Ann. 82a-741, Water Rights Conservation Program (L. 2011, ch. 89, § 25, 2011).
David T. Page, Yosemite and the Southern Sierra Nevada (W.W. Norton & Co., 2nd ed., 2011, 1st ed., 2008) (photographs).
