Buzz Thompson in Spain

Professor Barton “Buzz” Thompson, ’73, MBA ’76, JD ’76, is an international legal expert on property and the environment. A long-time Stanford faculty member, he is a professor in both the Law School and the Doerr School of Sustainability. He also co-founded the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and co-directed it for a dozen years. A polymath, he writes on a broad range of subjects from political, historical, and legal angles.  His most recent book, Liquid Asset (2024), examines solutions to the global water crisis. He is now at work on a biography of Stephen J. Field, a 19th-century Supreme Court justice who was the first westerner on the Court and an early Stanford trustee.  In recent years, Buzz has also worked to promote the political rights of indigenous populations, particularly in Oceana but of great importance to the Basque people.

On this trip, Professor Thompson will draw on his knowledge of the Basque region, property law, wine, and the environment to enliven our journey.  He will lecture on the unique history and identity of the Basque people and their push for independence from Spain; the historically important role that women have played in Basque society, which produced a more egalitarian sharing of property rights in the early modern era; the most famous criminal trial in the lengthy world history of wine fraud; and the emerging impact of climate change on the global wine industry.

• At Stanford Law School: Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law since 1995; vice dean, 1999–2004; founding director, environmental and natural resources program

• Professor of environmental behavioral science, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability,

• Senior fellow and founding Perry L. McCarty Director, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

• Former senior fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

• Former special master, United States Supreme Court

• Chairman of the board, Resources Legacy Fund; California trustee, The Nature Conservancy

• BA, economics and political science, 1972, Stanford University

• MBA, 1976, Stanford Business School

• JD, 1976, Stanford Law School