Professor Jan Laitos Teaches "Natural Resources and Environmental Policy" at Central European University

Professor Jan Laitos, John A. Carver, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, recently returned from Budapest, Hungary, where he taught natural resources and environmental policy at Central European University.

His class consisted of graduate students from the Ukraine, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Hungary, the Georgia Republic, Uzbekistan, Mexico and Lithuania.

He noted of this experience:

“It is interesting to see how, some 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, countries that were once under Soviet domination are well on their way to experiencing a world grounded in market-based capitalism and individual choices. Instead of relying on the State to take care of everyone, these countries, especially as represented by the students I taught, are learning about self-initiation and the reality of dealing with the consequences of free will.”

His class focused on the world’s differing responses to natural resources use and over-use.

Professor Laitos will be visiting the University of Amsterdam in June, to deliver a lecture on “The Legal-Economic History of Natural Resources Use and Non-Use” at the 3rd Annual Society of Environmental Law and Economics.