Faculty/Staff Profile
Burke Griggs joined the Washburn law faculty in 2016. He teaches property law to first-year students and natural resources law to upper-division students. His research agenda follows three interwoven lines of inquiry: the history of property rights regimes in natural resources; the geophysical aspects of natural resources and how they respond to different forms of ownership, exploitation, and regulation; and the diverse political cultures of the owners and communities which compete for and contest the use of these resources.
This approach is the product of his training as an historian and his experience as a lawyer. Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Griggs practiced water law in both the public and private sectors. As an assistant attorney general, he represented the State of Kansas in federal and interstate water matters, most prominently Kansas v. Nebraska, an original action to enforce the Republican River Compact against the State of Nebraska. For the first time in its history, the Supreme Court awarded disgorgement of the violating state’s ill-gotten gains (Kansas v. Nebraska, 135 S.Ct. 1042 (2015)). Professor Griggs also served as lead counsel for Kansas in the negotiations over the Kickapoo Tribe reserved water rights settlement, the first of its kind in Kansas. Outside of the litigation arena, Professor Griggs has advised Kansas' natural resources agencies on matters of natural resources law and policy.
During the 2013-2014 academic year, Professor Griggs served as a Consulting Professor at the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University. He was subsequently named a Nonresident Fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment, also at Stanford, and an affiliated scholar at the Lane Center, where he contributes to their joint Water in the West Project.
Professor Griggs is Associate Director of the Oil and Gas Law Center. He also participates in the Agricultural Law Program and the Rural Law Practice Initiative. Professor Griggs serves as the Washburn Trustee for the Rocky Mountain Mineral Foundation.
"Ad Astra Per Aquam (To the Stars, Through Water): The Kansas Aqueduct Project as Sociotechnical Imaginary in the Anthropocene," The Anthropocene Review (November 30, 2024) (with Matthew R Sanderson and Georg N Schäfer).
"Source Problems in Interstate Waters," 60 Idaho Law Review 339 (2024).
"Unlocking Aquifer Sustainability Through Irrigator-Driven Groundwater Conservation, Nature Sustainability, (October 7, 2024) (with Orduña Alegría, M.E., Zipper, S., Shin, H.C. et al.).
"Asking the Right Questions About Lithium," 61 Foundation Journal for Natural Resources and Energy Law 59 (2024).
"Lithium Extraction – Recent Developments for a Critical Mineral," 69 Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law Annual Institute Proceedings (2023) (with Florencia Heredia and Scott A. Hynek)
"Reaching Consensus About Conservation: High Plains Lessons for California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act," 52 University of the Pacific Law Review 495 (2021).
"Interstate Litigation, State Reaction, and Federalism in the Age of Groundwater," 65 Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute Proceedings 26-1 (2019).
"Water: Practical Challenges and Legal Rights to Acquire and Recycle Water for Hydraulic Fracturing," 56 Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Journal 69-109 (2019).
"Interstate Water Litigation in the West: A Fifty-Year Retrospective," 20 University of Denver Water Law Review 153 (2018) (invited).
"The Political Cultures of Irrigation and the Proxy Battles of Interstate Water Litigation," 57 Natural Resources Journal 1 (2017).
"General Stream Adjudications as a Property and Regulatory Model for the Ogallala Aquifer," 15 Wyoming Law Review 413 (2015) (invited).
"Beyond Drought: Water Rights in the Age of Permanent Depletion," 62 Kansas Law Review 1263 (2014).
"Comparative Water Law and Management: The Yellow River Basin in Western China and the State of Kansas in the Western United States," 18 Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy 428 (2009) (lead author, with John C. Peck and Xue Yunpeng) (invited).
"Groundwater Law and Management: the Asia (IWMI)-Kansas Program," 41 Creighton Law Review 315 (2008) (with John C. Peck).
"Does Groundwater Management Work?," 15 Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy 391 (2006).
Cases and Materials on Oil and Gas Law. 8th. ed. (West Academic, 2022) (co-author with John S. Lowe, Owen L. Anderson, Christopher S. Kulander, Monika U. Ehrman and James W. Coleman).
Water Resource Management: A Casebook in Law and Public Policy. 8th ed. (Foundation Press, 2021) (co-authored with Reed D. Benson and A. Dan Tarlock).
Petroglyphs of the Kansas Smoky Hills (University Press of Kansas, 2019) (with Rex Buchanan and Joshua Svaty) .
"Groundwater in the American West: How to Harness Hydrogeological Analysis to Improve Groundwater Management" (lead author with Dr. James Butler, Jr.) in The Water Problem: Climate Change and Water Policy in the United States (Editor, Pat Mulroy) (Brookings Institution Press, 2017).
"Irrigation Communities, Political Cultures, and the Public in the Age of Depletion" in Bridging The Distance: Common Issues Of The Rural West (Editor, David Danbom ) (University of Utah Press, 2015).
"The Allocation of Groundwater: From Superstition to Science," Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science, May 22, 2024.
Counsel of Record and Lead Author, "Brief of Amici Curiae Water Law Professors in Support of the Consent Decree Proposed by the States of Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas," Texas v. New Mexico, Supreme Court of the United States, No. 141 Original (December 11, 2023).
Counsel of Record and Lead Author, Brief for Amici Curiae Lawrence J. Macdonnell, Robert W. Adler, Burke W. Griggs, Dan Luecke And Jason Anthony Robison In Support of Respondents [Arizona, et al., Petitioners v. Navajo Nation, et al., Supreme Court of the United States, No. 21-1484, 22-51 (2023)]
Farmers are Depleting the Ogallala Aquifer Because the Government Pays Them to Do It," The Conversation, November 9, 2020 (co-authored).
"Some Legal and Machiavellian Principles of Interstate Groundwater Dispute Resolution," 34th Annual Water Law Conference, American Bar Association (2016) (selected as Best Paper).
"Lessons from Kansas: A More Sustainable Groundwater Management Approach," Stanford University, Water in the West (August 18, 2014).
"The Republican River Compact: Federalism, the Compact, and the Serial Crises of State Water Law," 100 The Water Report 1-18 (June 15, 2012).
"Southern Sierra & Death Valley, June 2007" (27 photographs), in Yosemite and the Southern Sierra Nevada (David T. Page, ) (W.W. Norton & Co., 2nd ed., 2011, 1st ed., 2008)."Thomas Jekyll" in New Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2005).
"Robert South" in New Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2005).
"Remembering the Puritan Past: John Walker and Anglican Memories of the English Civil War," in Protestant Identities: Belief, Culture, and Self-Fashioning in Early Modern England (Editors, Michael MacDonald, Muriel McClendon, and Joseph Ward) (Stanford University Press, 1999).
Quoted, "Texas Sued New Mexico Over Rio Grande Water. Now the States are Fighting the Federal Government," Inside Climate News, October 31, 2024.
Featured and quoted: "Missouri and the Midwest Are Gearing Up for Water Fights Fueled by Climate Change," St. Louis Public Radio - NPR / Harvest Public Media, August 30, 2024.
Interviewed and quoted: "The Checkup: Climate Change Can Worsen Your Drinking Water Quality," WFYI/NPR Indianapolis, July 8, 2024.
Quoted: "Supreme Court Sides With US and Blocks Rio Grande Water Deal (2)," Bloomberg Law, June 21, 2024 [Referencing Supreme Court Case Texas v. New Mexico].
Featured, "An Invisible Crisis Is Threatening America's Food Superpower Status," Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2024.
Quoted, "Agriculture Built These High Plains Towns. Now, It Might Run Them Dry," Stateline, January 29, 2024.
Quoted "Rio Grande High Court Ruling Could Discourage State Water Deals," Bloomberg Law, January 29, 2024
Quoted, "Ogallala Aquifer is Fading: Will KS Politicians Finally Act?," (requires subscription) The Kansas City Star, November 16, 2023.
Quoted, "The U.S. Needs Minerals for Green Tech. Will Western Mines Have Enough Water?," NPR: Kansas Public Radio, September 26, 2023.
Quoted, "Kansas Hunts for Water as Aquifer Levels Fall," The Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2023.
Quoted, "Kansas Town Taps Ranch Water 70 Miles Away, Ignites Legal Fight," E&E News, July 15, 2022.
Quoted, Supreme Court of the United States oral argument (mentioned at 33:05), Mississippi v. Tennessee, Brief of Amici curiae Law Professors in support of Defendants, October 4, 2021 (a case concerning a conflict over an interstate aquifer, Justice Sotomayor mentioned the amicus brief submitted by Burke Griggs and other law professors).
Quoted, "How The Search For Water Is Pitting Farmers Against Cities In Western Kansas," KMUW, February 8, 2021. Reprinted by: Rural Messenger, February 9, 2021; Flatland, February 8, 2021; Lawrence Journal-World, February 8, 2021.
Quoted, "Westar Gets an Earful about Proposed Electric Rate Increase, You Can Still Weigh In," The Wichita Eagle, May 23, 2018.
Quoted, "Haskell County Farmer Wins District Court Decision Over Decade-Old Water Rights Battle," Kansas AgLand, February 3, 2017.
Quoted, "What Happens to the U.S. Midwest When the Water's Gone?," National Geographic, August 2016 (also contributed to the map foldout on water law).
Quoted, "How to Make the Ogallala Last: Can the Future of the Nation's largest groundwater resource be re-written?," Headwaters Magazine, Fall 2014, 17-22.
Quoted, "The Last Drop: America's Breadbasket Faces Dire Water Crisis," NBC News, July 6, 2014.
Quoted, With Locals at the Helm, Kansas Charts New Course for Groundwater Management, Circle of Blue, April 10, 2013.
Quoted, Water Piped West Could Ease Strain on River, New York Times, December 9, 2012, p. A15.
Quoted, Is the Future of Western Water in Jeopardy?, High Country News, October 22, 2012.
"Common Patterns in Oil and Gas Ownership," Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, 41st Annual Oil & Gas Law Short Course, Houston, Texas, October 21, 2024.
"Split Estates," Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, 41st Annual Oil and Gas Law Short Course, Houston, Texas, October 21, 2024.
"Regulatory Considerations for the Management of Mine Waste and Impacts on Local Communities," Regional Critical Minerals Sustainability Workshop, San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina, October 8, 2024.
"Property and Regulatory Considerations for Re-mining/Re-processing Byproducts for Critical Minerals and Rare Earth Elements," Regional Critical Minerals Sustainability Workshop, San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina, October 7, 2024.
Co-presented, "Texas v. New Mexico, No. 141 Original: SCOTUS, Interstate Water Compacts & Federalism," National Judicial College, Webinar, October 3, 2024 (with Professor Buzz Thompson of Stanford Law School).
Panelist, "Water and Sustainability: A Holistic View," webinar hosted by The Conversation, June 28, 2023 (discussed problems of groundwater depletion and the recent Supreme Court case involving the Navajo Nation's efforts to secure water supplies).
"Land and Water 101 ("LAW 101")," 2022 Selected Topics and Miscellany CLE, Washburn University School of Law, Topeka, Kansas, June 23, 2022.
Panelist, Discussed the Legal History of the Colorado River Compact, Tick Segerblom's Virtual Water Conference, Dam the Status Quo, Las Vegas, Nevada, December 13, 2021.
"The Opportunity for a 'Second Founding' of American Water Law," American Geophysical Union's Fall Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, December 13, 2021 (invited speaker).
"Water Justice in Indian Country," Teach-In on Racial Justice and the Law, Boston University School of Law virtual event, September 8, 2020.
"Effective Property: Integrating Hydrogeological Science into American Groundwater Law," American Geophysical Union Chapman Conference, Quest for Sustainability of Heavily Stressed Aquifers at Regional to Global Scales, Valencia, Spain, October 22, 2019.
"Updates in Water Law: Current Issues," 2019 Selected Topics and Miscellany CLE, Washburn University School of Law, Topeka, Kansas, June 27, 2019.
"Fear and Loathing in Kansas Water Law," Governor's Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas, Manhattan, Kansas, November 11, 2018.
"Water Law Issues Update," Washburn Law Out West CLE, Rebein Brothers Trial Lawyers, Dodge City, Kansas, June 26, 2018.
"Playing the Analogy Game in Natural Resources Law: Updates from the Field," 2017 Global Land & Resources Colloquium, University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman, Oklahoma, October 21, 2017.
"Water Law Issues Update," Washburn Law Out West CLE, Rebein Brothers Trial Lawyers, Dodge City, Kansas, May 11, 2017.
Panelist, "Science and the Courtroom: How Groundwater Modeling is Changing the Game," University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Tenth Annual Water Law Review Symposium, April 7, 2017.
"Interstate Water Litigation: A Fifty-Year Selectrospective," University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Tenth Annual Water Law Review Symposium, April 7, 2017.
"Water Law Issues Relevant to Oil and Gas Production in Kansas," 2017 Spring Oil, Gas & Mineral Law CLE, Kansas Bar Association, Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas, March 3, 2017.
"Emerging Water Resources Conflicts," National Agricultural Leaders Summit, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, January 6, 2017.
"Cooperative Federalism in Water: A Tale of Two Western River Basins," Governor's Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas, Manhattan, Kansas, November 15, 2016.
"The Ownership of Riparian Land on or Adjacent to the Navigable Rivers of Kansas," Kansas Society of Land Surveyors Annual Conference, Dodge City, Kansas, October 20, 2016.
"Litigating the Groundwater Revolution: The Infamous Past, the Maddening Present, and the Uncertain Future of Interstate Groundwater Dispute Resolution," CLE presentation, University of New Mexico School of Law, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 19, 2016.
"Pasts without Precedent: The Serial Anomalies of Western History and the Recurrent Problem of the Common Law of Western Natural Resources," University of New Mexico School of Law, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 19, 2016.
"Beyond Boundaries: Western Groundwater in the Age of Depletion," The Geological Society of America, Denver, Colorado, September 27, 2016 (with Anne Castle).
"An Introduction to Kansas Water Law," Kansas State University / Washburn Law School Inaugural Agribusiness Symposium, Exploring the Business of Agriculture, Kansas Farm Bureau, Manhattan, Kansas, September 20, 2016.
"Interstate Groundwater Litigation and the Equitable Apportionment of Interstate Aquifers," American Bar Association, Annual Water Law Conference, Austin, Texas, March 29, 2016.
"Should We Adjudicate the Water Rights to the Ogallala Aquifer?" Governor's Conference on Water and the Future of Kansas, Manhattan, Kansas, November 19, 2015.
"Injury and Impairment in Kansas Water Law," Kansas Water Authority, Hutchinson, Kansas, August 20, 2015; Kansas Water Congress, Lawrence, Kansas, August 6, 2015.
"Kansas v. Nebraska & Colorado, No. 126 Original: Its Causes, its Judicial Resolution, and its Actual Consequences," University of Kansas School of Law, Lawrence, Kansas, April 7, 2015.
"The Issue of Procedural Control in Achieving Sustainable Reductions in Groundwater Consumption," Groundwater Allocation Dispute Resolution Workshop, Stanford Law School, Stanford, California, November 5, 2014.
"Fifty Years of Interstate Water Litigation," American Water Resources Association, Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., November 4, 2014.
"A Past without Precedent: The Serial Anomalies of Western History and the Recurrent Problem of the Common Law of Natural Resources," Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, December 4, 2014; University of Kansas, Hall Center for the Humanities, Nature and Culture Seminar, Lawrence, Kansas, October 24, 2014.
"General Stream Adjudications as a Property and Regulatory Model for the Ogallala Aquifer," University of Wyoming College of Law, Symposium on the Big Horn River General Stream Adjudication, Riverton, Wyoming, September 11, 2014."Business Perspectives on Key Elements of a Sustainable Groundwater Regime," Business Water Forum: Forgotten Groundwater, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, May 29, 2014.
"Beyond Natural Drought: Water Rights in the Age of Permanent Depletion," Association for Law, Property and Society, 5th Annual Meeting, Vancouver, British Columbia, May 2, 2014.
"The Law of the River: The Future of Interstate Compacts and Trans-boundary River Management in the American West," Stanford Law School, Stanford, California, April 17, 2014 (panelist with Barton H. "Buzz" Thompson, Jr., David Hayes, and Leon Szeptycki).
"Western Water Transfers and Western Water Publics," Rethinking the Rural-Urban Divide in the Modern West: An Interdisciplinary Conference, Bill Lane Center for the American West, Stanford University, Stanford, California, April 5, 2014.
"Quantitative Approaches to Reducing Legal Conflicts over Groundwater," Water in the West Project, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, California, April 2, 2014.
"Interstate Water Litigation in the West and the Interdisciplinary Imperative," University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, February 28, 2014.
"Water Wars and Civil Insurgencies: the Current State of Interstate Water Litigation in the American West," Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, California, December 6, 2013.
"Dealing with Overdraft in the Ogallala Aquifer: the Kansas Approach," American Groundwater Trust Forum, Tulare, California, November 18, 2013.
"Oil and Water Do Mix: Legal Issues with Water and Oil and Gas Production, Including Hydraulic Fracturing and Coal-bed Methane Production in Kansas," Kansas Bar Association,
2013 Oil, Gas, and Mineral Conference, Dodge City, Kansas, March 8, 2013 (repeated at Southwest Kansas Royalty Owners' Association Annual Meeting, Hugoton, Kansas, April 27,2013).
"Kansas v. Nebraska & Colorado: Groundwater's Challenge to the Enforcement of a Judicial Decree," National Judicial College, University of California-Davis King School of Law, October 19, 2012.
"Irrigation Communities, Political Cultures, and Competing Water Publics in the Age of Depletion," Bill Lane Center for the American West, Stanford University, Ogden, Utah, October 13, 2012.
"The Federal Role in Interstate Water Relations," National Waterways Conference Annual Meeting, Tunica, Mississippi, September 20, 2012.
"Hydrologic Time, Regulatory Distance, and Unsustainable Groundwater," National Ground Water Association, 2012 National Ground Water Summit, Anaheim, California, May 7, 2012.
"Federalism, the Republican River Compact, and the Serial Crises of State Water Law," American Bar Association, Annual Water Law Conference, San Diego, California, February 23, 2012.
Testified before the Kansas Legislature's Joint Committee on Water, August 30, 2022.
"An Overview of Kansas Water Law," Kansas House Water Committee, January 26, 2021.
"Injury to and Impairment of Water Rights Under Kansas Law," Joint Committee on Energy and Environmental Policy, Kansas Legislature, March 15, 2016.
"Report on the Republican River Compact Litigation," Joint Committee on Energy and Environmental Policy, Kansas Legislature, October 14, 2012.
"Conservation as a Beneficial Use of Water: Testimony in Support of SB 510," Joint Committee on Energy and Environmental Policy, Kansas Legislature, September 20, 2010.
Subject Matter Expert, Environmental and Natural Resources Law for the United States Department of Commerce, Commercial Law and Development Program (CLDP)
Member, Kansas-Missouri Environmental Justice Working Group, named by the United States Department of Justice, 2022.
Member, "Faculty Network for the National Judicial College's Dividing the Waters Program, 2017-.
Recipient of the 2024 Clyde O. Martz Teaching Award by the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law (FNREL) (Recognizes excellence in teaching natural resources law as the primary criterion. Consideration is also given to the fostering of a broad understanding of the law, the mentoring of students, and displaying an innovative style and other notable qualities in the classroom).
Received a Fulbright U. S. Scholar award in Law and Sustainability at the NOVA School of Law in Lisbon, Portugal for the 2023-2024 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.