Summer Labors

My summers are always devoted to research, writing, and cycling (not necessarily in that order). This summer, my work plans are unusually banal, which may be just as well considering that I'm in the process of moving jobs and possibly homes. Aside from the working paper I posted the other day (here), which I wrote for a conference last month, my summer writing consists mainly in preparing new editions of existing works.

Peter Grossman and I are currently working on a teachers manual to accompany the new edition of our Principles of Law and Economics, which will be published next month by Wolters Kluwer Aspen. I don't use teachers manuals myself, but Peter and I realize the importance of writing one for marketing purposes. So, we're working hard to make ours useful. It is not, however, the most edifying of projects. I also just finished up the copyright clearances for works we excerpt in the textbook. That was also a less than fascinating chore.

Once Peter and I finish up with  teachers manual and the page proofs (hopefully next week) my attention will turn to the new edition of Natural Resources Law, which I'm co-authoring with Jan Laitos, Sandi Zellmer, and Mary Wood. I've already completed first drafts of updates and revisions of two chapters. I just have the chapter on mining and mineral leasing law to go. My main goal for that chapter (aside from the usual updating of new cases, regulations, etc.), is to cut some fat from the last edition, and add in a new section on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its aftermath. That new section will be the one fun part of yet another uninspiring project.

If I'm lucky, I'll finish most of the work on new editions of existing books by mid-July, which would leave me a month before classes begin to get some work done on my long-suffering climate policy monograph. I don't have high hopes however, especially if we wind up moving lock, stock, and barrel to Bloomington. I have to be out of my office in Indy by the end of this month, and I'm about halfway moved out already; I've been moving boxes to Bloomington in drips and drabs each time I go down there.