Oliver A. Houck
Professor of Law and David Boies Chair in Public Interest Law, Tulane University
Books
Best of the Books: Reflections on Recent Literature in Natural Resources and the Environment (Oliver A Houck and G Tracy Mehan) Environmental Law Institute, 2015
Foreword: “If you find yourself interested in the environment and thirsting for more information, this is the book for you. If you want to understand the multitude of issues raised by the players in this debate – heroes and villains – then read on. What you will find is the rich and fascinating unfolding of a movement that in its modern form is now over 50 years old.”
— William D. Ruckelshaus, Former Administrator, US Environmental Protection Agency
Excerpts:
From a review of COLLAPSE by Jeremy Diamond:
“Civilizations would rather die than switch because dying turns out to be a whole lot easier. You simply have to keep on truckin’. A terribly irony of the world today is that so much of its hope lies in following American examples set two hundred years ago, and so much of its risk lies in following the America of today. The greatest challenge of COLLAPSE is right here, in this country, at this time.”
From a review of BREAKING THE VICIOUS CIRCLE by Stephen Breyer:
“Why do lawyers litigate? For one, because the cleanup requirements are based on science so soft it would be ineffective assistance of counsel not to litigate, and, for another, because no one knows what to do with the factor of costs. All of these decisions are purportedly made on the basis of risk management. None are satisfactory. Judge Breyer has proven that if nothing else in part one. Nor will they improve, however, if done behind closed doors by the super experts of a super agency. The science will become no more firm, just less visible and, with less participation, less informed. Breyer has the right question but the wrong answer. He goes too far.”
From review of 1493 by Charles Mann:
“In the end, the homogenocene may be a human choice but that makes it our choice too, and to sit in the stands and lob spitballs at those who would chose to maintain the diversity of this blue ball as fully as possible is to make this choice, in a negative way. Destroying life chains of history is either right because after all we are the humans, and many of us think this way), or it is wrong, but it is not simply someone else’s affair.”
Downstream Toward Home
Louisiana State University Press, 2014Prologue:
“This is a book about rivers and a life spent enjoying and defending them, sometimes more successfully than others but always with the conviction that they were worth it. Here in New Orleans I still venture out on a weekend with family and friends or simply alone, except for my dog, Ms. Bear, up in the bow, as Lisa says, “a tower of strength and inconvenience.” Every piece of water has a tale to tell. These stories are an invitation to join us and, I hope, to remember your own.”
Reviews:
“Yes, America’s best environmental writer is a law professor. Oliver Houck’s memoir of his encounters with rivers is wise, wistful, infuriating and beautiful. It’s a privilege and a pleasure to watch him flow”
— Michael Grunwald, Senior National Correspondent, TIME magazine
“This is a book of great beauty, quiet outrage, and ineradicable hope”.
— Dr. Molly Rothenberg, former Dean, Department of English, Tulane University
“Houck’s adventures and mishaps are full of humor, meditation, occasional danger and constant surprises.”
— Brent Blackwelder, President Emeritus, Friends of the Earth
“Once you start reading you are headed into the heart of a continent”.
— Wayne Franklin, author, James Fenimore Cooper
Prologue, “The Missing Constitution”, in PRINCIPLES OF CONSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
American Bar Association, 2011“The dimensions of the General Welfare and Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness still wait in the wings. In the context of radical climate change, equally radical changes in the human body via endocrine disruptors, and the collapse of ecosystems that sustained life on the planet for eons before the prototypes for humans first appeared, it will be up to a future court to decide whether these matters too, like the rights to human dignity they closely parallel, are sufficiently urgent to require a judicial role. … Courts change. The Constitution and its provisions remain. That, by itself alone, is reason for hope.”
Taking Back Eden
Island Press, 2010Introduction:
“I have chosen to tell the stories of these cases because they opened the way, and because they involved extraordinary places and thing. But I am also writing to celebrate their actors who had the courage to speak truth to power and then to take it on, for pieces of our natural world whose adequate description is difficult and whose value is beyond measure. After them, there is no turning back.”
Reviews:
“Who would have guessed that one of the most fascinating books of the year would be a discussion of environmental lawsuits from around the world? Taking Back Eden is gracefully written, and it’s socked with some of the most interesting characters you will find in non-fiction.”
— Denis Hayes, President, Bullitt Foundation and National Coordinator of Earth Day, 1971
“This book could only have been written by environmental law’s greatest storyteller—a synthesis of opportunity, courage, slapdash enthusiasm—a relentless pursuit of good law by well-motivated people.”
— William H. Rodgers, Jr., Professor of Law, University of Washington
“Oliver Houck, lawyer, teacher, and writer, is graced with poetic imagination, a love of history, and a knack for winning environmental lawsuits. These inspirational stories show us how ordinary citizens can change the world.”
— Bruce Babbitt, former United States Secretary of the Interior and author of Cities in the Wilderness
“This book is the best seller in China on Amazon and two other online bookstores.”
— Professor Mingqing You, Wuhan University, March, 2017.
Down on the Batture
University of Mississippi Press, 2010
Prologue:“The Mississippi River winds past the City of New Orleans between enormous levees and a rim of land and trees. This is the batture, where the water beats against ha land, and it is where the river breathes. At low water the batture may be a half mile wide, but come April it will often be zero feet wide as spring rains to the north swell the Mississippi from bank to bank, flooding the trees. It is one of the most surprising places in America.”
Reviews:
“Oliver Houck takes you down to the river, then out wading deep into it. To say his book is enjoyable to read is true, but does it an injustice—it’s much more than simply fun. He opens your eyes into a part of the world’s most of us didn’t know exists, then helps you understand it—and everything else.”
— John M. Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
“What emerges in these pages is the poet’s passion for language and the naturalist’s delight in wild places. Reading this book not only provides a detailed and perceptive understanding of the Mississippi River batture, but also offers a set of literary excursions as refreshing and insightful as an afternoon on Houck and Jim’s raft.”
— Barbara C. Ewell, Dorothy H. Brown Professor of English, Loyola University, New Orleans.
“Houck’s memoir is a tone poem to his adopted town.”
— Jason Berry, author of Render Unto Rome.
Environmental Law Stories
Foundation Press, 2005 (Oliver A Houck and Richard J Lazarus, editors)Introduction:
“We all enjoy a good story. The story of environmental law is a particularly rich one, improbable and unpredictable, and has been driven forward by lawsuits large and small. It is also a story about which your editors care deeply and in which, by way of disclaimer, we have been frequently involved. … There is nothing static about environmental law. It is a game in motion.”
Reviews:
“Environmental Law Stories feature characters as diverse as community activists, small farmers, big businesses, dedicated scientists, skilled lawyers, strong-willed judges, and Presidents of the United States. Four of the ten selected cases established the field of environmental law, three others refined it, and the final three have sought to limit its effectiveness and reach. This selection mirrors the development of the field of environmental law, from the first, heady days of its creation to its current conflicts with other laws and values, including some embedded in the Constitution.”
— Amazon.com
“Perhaps the most incisive, telling words are in the brief dedication of this wonderful book: the ‘hundreds of environmental lawyers who often at considerable financial, professional, and even personal risk sacrificed much of their lives to the making of environmental law.’ It was the real birth of the phrases ‘pro bono’ and ‘public interest”
— Alan R. Sharett, former Professorial Director, NYU Public Liability Institute
The Clean Water Act TMDL: Law, Policy, and Implementation Environmental Law Institute, 1999, 2002 (2d. ed)
Introduction:
“At journey’s end is a new water pollution control program. Its scope is ambitious—at last count nearly 40% of the nation’s waters remain impaired. Its players are lukewarm to reluctant, and there are some who will fight to the end. Its basic assumptions—that pollution can be controlled by calibrating sources and effects, and that state and local authorities have the will to do so—are, at best, unproven. On the other hand, this is a program that Congress enacted. It has the potential to succeed where others have not, and it has the power of a citizenry concerned about clean water and determined to take it forward. And it is at the door.”
Review:
“Today, the total maximum daily load (TMDL) program is becoming a fact of life for many industries, for EPA, and for state and local agencies. Tulane Law Professor Oliver A. Houck, one of the country’s leading experts in water quality law, has written the definitive guide to help you understand it”.
— Environmental Law Institute
Biodiversity and the Law
Island Press, 1996Forward:
“Every once in a while an idea comes along that changes the way we think about ourselves. The great religions are enduring examples, but nearly as powerful have been the secular teachings of Gandhi, Darwin and Freud. Here at the end of the twentieth century we find ourselves at the doorsill of another new teaching. It has been preceded by a handful of prophets – Alexander Von Humboldt, Aldo Leopold and Rachael Carson for openers – who demonstrated the interconnectedness of living things. It has been resisted by the followers of other prophets who see in this interconnectedness a threat to the supremacy of the master species, humankind. The emerging idea is not yet crystal clear, but what the writings of E.O. Wilson and other scientist-preachers are outlining is a new organizing principle for life on earth: biological diversity.”
