Expertise: Environmental law, regulatory reform, natural resource law and land use regulation

Current Courses: Property

Courses Taught: Property, Environmental Law & Policy, Property, Regulatory Innovation & Design, Environmental Ethics and the Professional Role

Professor Camacho’s research and scholarship analyzes the design of environmental, land use, and natural resource decision-making processes, with a particular focus on adaptive management, collaborative governance, and climate change adaptation.

Professor Camacho is a co-investigator on an NSF-funded interdisciplinary collaborative working with The Nature Conservancy and Chicago Wilderness studying and developing innovative tools for managing the effects of climate change on natural resources. He teaches courses in the areas of Environmental Law, Property, Regulatory Innovation and Design, and Environmental Ethics.

Prior to joining the U.C. Irvine School of Law faculty, Professor Camacho was an Associate Professor at the Notre Dame Law School. From 2003 to 2005, Professor Camacho was a research fellow at the Georgetown University Law Center, and from 1998 to 2003 he was an Associate in the Environment, Land and Resources Department of Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles, California. He has also worked at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Office of General Counsel. He has been a Fellow at the Center for Progressive Reform since 2008, and is the former chair of the Section on Natural Resources of the Association of American Law Schools.

Professor Camacho holds a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School, an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center, and two B.A. summa cum laude degrees in Political Science and Criminology from the University of California, Irvine.

In the News

• Mother Jones: Prof. Camacho: Climate change not part of conservation laws
• Environmental Law Prof Blog: Prof. Camacho's article on Assisted Migration named one of year's best
• The Press-Enterprise: Prof. Camacho on city code issues in San Jacinto project
• Huffington Post/History News Network: Professors Menkel-Meadow and Camacho sign petition to change Senate voting rule
• e! Science News: "Notre Dame researchers describe new tool for evaluating 'managed relocations'"
• Nature Reports Climate Change: "Moving on assisted migration"

Recent Publications

• BioScience: "Managed Relocation: Integrating the Scientific, Regulatory, and Ethical Challenges" (PDF)
• BYU Law Review: "A Learning Collaboratory: Improving Federal Climate Change Adaptation Planning," (2011)
• North Carolina Law Review: "Transforming the Means and Ends of Natural Resource Management"
• Center for Progressive Reform: "Making Good Use of Adaptive Management" (PDF)
• Center for Progressive Reform: "Why Federal Climate Change Legislation Shouldn't Stop States From Innovating in Adaptation Efforts"
• Center for Progressive Reform: "On Adaptation, Kerry-Lieberman Climate Bill Largely Similar to ACES, But Drops Several Provisions and Provides Less Money"
• Yale Journal on Regulation: "Assisted Migration: Redefining Nature and Natural Resource Law Under Climate Change" (awarded the Walton H. Hamilton Prize as the article in the journal's Volume 27 most likely to have a significant impact on the study and understanding of regulatory policy)
• Center for Progressive Reform: "Climate Change Adaptation Still Being Given Short Shrift in Local, State, and Federal Government"
• Prof. Camacho's Scholarly Papers on SSRN

• March 21, 2013: CLEANR Guest Speaker Kenneth Feinberg at UCI Law
• March 4, 2013: Presenting the Boehl Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Policy at University of Louisville, Brandeis School of Law
• Feb. 19, 2013: CLEANR Literature Series, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality at UCI Law
• Nov. 8, 2012: CLEANR Guest Speaker Kent Syverud at UCI Law
• Nov. 1, 2012: CLEANR Literature Series: The Death and Life of Great American Cities at UCI Law
• Oct. 2, 2012: CLEANR Guest Speaker Joseph Sax at UCI Law
• Sept. 27, 2012: CLEANR Guest Speaker Dan Farber at UCI Law
• Mar. 30, 2012: Workshop on Private Sector Climate Change Adaptation, Univ. Of North Carolina
• Mar. 8, 2012: A Framework for Managing Climate Change Adaptation in Diverse Contexts, Northwestern Univ. Law School
• Feb. 15, 2012: "Transforming the Means and Ends of Natural Resource Management" seminar, School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona
• Feb. 10, 2012: Negotiated Land Use Regulation, Post Zoning: Alternative Forms of Public Land Use Controls, Brooklyn Law Review
• Feb. 7, 2012: Center for Land, Environment, and Natural Resources inaugural lecture by Richard Lazarus at UCI Law
• Nov. 10, 2011: Climate and Energy Law Workshop, UCLA School of Law
• Jul. 22, 2011: Transforming Natural Resource Management, Empowering Sustainability on Earth, Newkirk Center for Science and Society, Univ. of Calif., Irvine
• April 7, 2011:"Research Roundtable–Climate Change, Adaptation, and Environmental Law", Northwestern University School of Law
• April 2, 2011:"New Directions in Environmental Law: A Climate of Possibility", Yale Law School
• March 28, 2011: Environmental Law Scholarship Workshop, UC Berkeley Law School
• March 4, 2011: "Enhancing the Future of the California Coast" symposium at UC Irvine
• Feb. 3, 2011:"Disasters and the Environment", Brigham Young University Law Review Symposium
• Nov. 12, 2010: Co-host, "Preserving the Environment of the Arctic Region" symposium at UC Irvine
• Nov. 5, 2010: Presenter, "Transforming the Means and Ends of Natural Resources Management," Climate Change Adaptation Workshop, George Washington Law School
• Oct. 15, 2010: Presenter, "Adaptation and Resiliency in Legal Systems," University of North Carolina Law Review Symposium
• Oct. 5, 2010: Speaker, "Transforming the Means and Ends of Natural Resources Management," Chapman University School of Law
• May 14, 2010: "Marine and Freshwater Conservation Law and Governance," day-long symposium at UC Irvine
• March 30, 2010: Sea Grant Law and Policy Journal 2010 Symposium: Addressing Uncertainty of Environmental Problems: The Challenges of Adaptive Management, Keynote Speaker
• March 26, 2010: Adapting to Climate Change: Problems and Solutions, Speaker
• March 6, 2010: Association for Law, Property and Society annual meeting, Panelist on Assisted Migration
• Jan. 9, 2010: Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, Moderator and Panelist, "Climate Change and Adaptation in a Federal System"