As the Environmental Law Program prepares for the retirement of Bob Percival, the Maryland Carey Law community is reflecting on the extraordinary impact of the program's founder, teacher, mentor, and friend.
Bob Percival started the Environmental Law Program in 1987 and over the past 40 years has taught virtually every alum of the program. Along the way, Percival made his mark not just on current and former students, but also on the environmental law field itself. His casebook, Environmental Regulation: Law and Policy, is the most widely used environmental law casebook in the United States and is currently in its 10th edition.
Percival taught students, lawyers, and judges around the world, giving lectures at more than 100 law schools and academic institutions worldwide. He also played a leading role in developing the concept of global environmental law through his groundbreaking 2009 article, The Emergence of Global Environmental Law (co-authored with Tseming Yang), and subsequent scholarship.
Over the course of his career, Percival received numerous honors and awards from the University of Maryland, the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, the American Bar Association, The U.S. Fulbright Program, the American College of Environmental Lawyers, the Environmental Law Institute, and the American Law Institute, among others. He also served on the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
But many former students know him best for his decades of coaching the law school's softball team, leading dozens of student trips to China, the Middle East, Africa, and conferences around the world, hosting students at his home for Supreme Court field trips and, finally, bringing students and alumni together to enjoy fine wine as an Environmental Law Program family.
This year, alumni and friends of the program will gather for the 35th and final wine tasting, raising a glass to Percival and thanking him for all he has done for the Environmental Law Program, its students, and the field of environmental law.