杏吧原创

Barbara is a University Distinguished Professor Emerita with the 杏吧原创 College of Law, where she taught for sixteen years. She was instrumental in the development of the Program in Natural Resources and Environmental Law at the College, and the development of the interdisciplinary Water Resources graduate program that included concurrent JD/MS and JD/PhD degrees. Her teaching and research expertise is in water law, the law-science interface and water dispute resolution. She co-chaired the Adaptive Water Governance project made possible through support from the NSF funded National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, SESYNC, and spent spring 2015 as the Goyder Institute in Australia comparing water law reform in the western U.S. and Australia during drought. In retirement she continues to be active in publication, serves in a senior advisory capacity on grants, and provides graduate student advising. In her outreach and engagement, she continues to provide education and expertise on the Columbia River Treaty as part of the Universities Consortium on Columbia River Governance. She is also working as a mediator on water disputes, particularly disputes among governments.

• Water Law
• Law and Science
• Resilience, law and adaptive governance
• Interdisciplinary Education
• Dispute resolution
• Native American Water Rights

• Native American Water Right Settlement Electronic Repository in collaboration with the Utton Center and Earth Data Analysis Center at University of New Mexico and the American Indian Law Center 
• Columbia River Treaty projects with Nigel Bankes, University of Calgary Faculty of Law, on a project funded by the Program on Water Issues at the Munk School of Global Affairs
  • , October 2012
  • , October 2014

• U of I Alumni Award for Excellence, Inspirational Mentor 2019 [student recipient: Rebecca Witinok-Huber Ph.D.]
• Promotion to the rank of University Distinguished Professor 2018
• U of I Alumni Award for Excellence, Inspirational Mentor 2018 [student recipient: Chris Murray J.D.]
• U of I Alumni Award for Excellence, Inspirational Mentor 2009 [student recipient: Carmen Thomas Morse]
• Distinguished Scholar, , Change in Social-Environmental Systems Immersion Workshop, April 2016;
• Policy Immersion Workshop, Dec. 13-14, 2016.
• Editorial Board,  A journal of integrative science for resilience and sustainability. 2016-2022
• Visiting Professor, ANZOG-Goyder Institute Visiting Professors Program in Public Sector Policy and Management, in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Flinders University, South Australia, Spring 2015.
• 杏吧原创 Environmental Science and Water Resources Programs Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award 2013
• 杏吧原创 Mid-Career Award for Excellence 2013
• Visiting Scholar, Utton Center, University of New Mexico School of Law, Spring 2012
• 杏吧原创 Award for Excellence in Interdisciplinary or Collaborative Efforts 2010
• Allan G. Shepard Professor 2009-2010, UI Law
• University of Utah College of Law Stegner Young Scholar 2009
• William F. and Joan L. Boyd Teaching Award, UI Law, 2008-2009
• U. Idaho Law Review Faculty Award 2005-2006
• Palouse Region STAR Award, November, 2005 for contribution to the region by bringing the Indian Water Rights Settlement Conference to Moscow, Idaho
• Montana State Bar Local Professionalism Award, 1999
• University of California at Davis Department of Geology Award for Outstanding Achievement

Law Review/Journal Articles

Cosens,Barbara, J. B. Ruhl, Niko Soininen, Lance Gunderson, Antti Belinskij, Thorsten Blenckner, Alejandro E. Camacho, Brian C. Chaffin, Robin Kundis Craig, Holly Doremus, Robert Glicksman, Anna-Stiina Heiskanen, Rhett Larson, and Jukka Similä. Governing complexity: Integrating science, governance, and law to manage accelerating change in the globalized commons. PNAS 2021 Vol. 118 No. 36 e2102798118 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2102798118 available at 

Cosens, B., JB Ruhl, Niko Soininen and Lance Gunderson (2020)Enabling Adaptive Governance: Defining the role of government in new governance, 73 (6) Vanderbilt Law Review 1687-1732.

Matsaw, Sammy, Hedden-Nicely, Dylan and Cosens, Barbara A. (2020) Cultural linguistics and Treaty Language: A modernized approach to interpreting treaty language to capture the Tribe’s understanding. 50 Environmental Law 415-446.

, 22 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 841 (2018) (co-authored with Jason Robison, Sue Jackson, Kelsey Leonard & Daniel McCool). 

Modernization of the Columbia River Treaty: an Opportunity for Idaho, Advocate (Idaho), Aug. 2017, at 34.

Reconciliation of Development and Ecosystems: the Ecology of Governance in the International Columbia River Basin. 18 Regional Envtl. Change 1679–92 (2018) (co-authored with Matthew McKinney, Richard Paisly & Aaron T. Wolf).

. 23 Ecology & Soc’y art. 4 (2018) (co-authored with Lance Gunderson & Brian C. Chaffin).

. 6 Frontiers Envtl. Sci. art. 104 (2018) (co-authored with Jennifer E. Givens et al.).

. 22 Ecology &Soc’y art. 30 (2017) (co-authored with Robin K. Craig et al.).

, 22 Ecology & Soc’y art. 31 (2017) (co-authored with Lance Gunderson et al.).

Books and Book Chapters

Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely, Barbara A. Cosens, Dale D. Goble, Water Law of the American West: A Systems Approach (Carolina Academic Press, 2025.)

Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance: Linking Law to Social-Ecological Resilience (Barbara Cosens & Lance Gunderson eds., 2018).

An Introduction to Practical Panarchy; Linking Law, Resilience and Adaptive Water Governance of Regional Scale Social Ecological Systems, in Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance: Linking Law to Social-Ecological Resilience (Barbara Cosens & Lance Gunderson eds., 2018) (co-authored with Lance Gunderson).

Case Studies in Adaptation and Transformation of Ecosystems, Legal Systems and Governance Systems, in Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance: Linking Law to Social-Ecological Resilience (Barbara Cosens & Lance Gunderson eds., 2018) (co-authored with Lance Gunderson).

Social-Ecological Resilience in The Columbia River Basin: The Role of Law and Governance, in Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance: Linking Law to Social-Ecological Resilience (Barbara Cosens & Lance Gunderson eds., 2018) (co-authored with Alex Fremier).

Assessing Adaptive Water Governance for Lake Eyre Basin and Linked Portions of the Great Artesian Basin in Australia, in Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance: Linking Law to Social-Ecological Resilience (Barbara Cosens & Lance Gunderson eds., 2018) (co-authored with Angela H. Arthington).

Legal Pathways to Adaptive Governance in Water Basins in North America and Australia, in Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance: Linking Law to Social-Ecological Resilience (Barbara Cosens & Lance Gunderson eds., 2018) (co-authored with Robin Kundis Craig et al.).

Trajectories of Change in Regional Scale Social-Ecological Water Systems, in Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance: Linking Law to Social-Ecological Resilience (Barbara Cosens & Lance Gunderson eds., 2018) (co-authored with Lance Gunderson & Brian C. Chaffin).

Adaptive Water Governance: Summary and Synthesis, in Practical Panarchy for Adaptive Water Governance: Linking Law to Social-Ecological Resilience (Barbara Cosens & Lance Gunderson eds., 2018) (co-authored with Lane Gunderson).

Governing the Freshwater Commons: Lessons from Application of the Trilogy of Governance Tools in Australia and the Western United States in Reforming Water Law and Governance: From Stagnation to Innovation in Australia (Cameron Holley & Darren Sinclair eds., 2018).

Selected articles co-authored with with graduate students

Pace, Bronson J. and Cosens, Barbara A., Environmental Assessment in a Time of Rapid Change and High Uncertainty: The Addition of Resilience Assessment to NEPA, 47(2) Environmental Law & Policy Review 317 (2023), available at

Matsaw, Sammy, Hedden-Nicely, Dylan and Cosens, Barbara A. (2020) Cultural linguistics and Treaty Language: A modernized approach to interpreting treaty language to capture the Tribe’s understanding. 50 Environmental Law 415-446.

Stahl,  Amanda T., Fremier, Alexander K.  and Cosens Barbara A. (2020) Mapping legal authority for terrestrial conservation corridors along streams Conservation Biology, Volume 00, No. 0, 1–13

Givens JE, Padowski J, Guzman CD, Malek K, Witinok-Huber R, Cosens B, Briscoe M, Boll J and Adam J (2018) Incorporating Social System Dynamics in the Columbia River Basin: Food-Energy-Water Resilience and Sustainability Modeling in the Yakima River Basin. Front. Environ. Sci. 6:104. doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2018.00104. Available at: