PROFESSOR PROFILE: TIMOTHY MULVANEY

Mulvaney-sqProfessor Timothy Mulvaney started as an associate professor for Texas Wesleyan Law in 2009 before the school traded in its blue and gold for the now-familiar maroon and white in 2013. He became a professor of law in 2014 and associate dean for faculty research and development in 2017.

Before teaching, Professor Mulvaney’s work was primarily focused on environmental law. At the University of Mississippi School of Law, he worked at the National Sea Grant Law Center. This center develops national legal involvement and analysis of public policy for marine environment issues in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Much like Professor Mulvaney’s current work, the center seeks to bridge the gaps between specialized communities, policymakers, and the general public affected by legal decision-making.

Professor Mulvaney also served as the New Jersey Deputy Attorney General for the Environmental Practice Group. This division oversees the Garden State’s Environmental Protection Agency and other state agencies responsible for protecting the environment through enforcement, permitting, and counseling. As with many public sector jobs, there was a financial sacrifice compared to positions in the private sector, but the wealth of hands-on and in-depth experience proved invaluable. Professor Mulvaney recounts how, within six months, he could be in the courtroom performing hundreds of his own depositions and trying his own cases in administrative law. New Jersey provided the perfect introduction to Professor Mulvaney’s love for land use law. The topographic and social diversity of the state created an “exciting environment in which to study property and land use.” From beaches and farms to its close proximity to Philadelphia and New York City, New Jersey was a haven for engaging and cutting-edge developments in property and land use law.

Professor Mulvaney’s time in New Jersey set the stage for his transition to Texas. Much like New Jersey, Texas benefits from a varied geographic landscape, both rural and urban areas, and a wealth of natural resources. That diversity provides the excellent conditions for innovative developments in land use and property law, parallel to New Jersey’s role in the 70s and 80s for the national advancement of new property principles. Professor Mulvaney’s presence in the Lone Star State is timely. He is using the diversity of his experience to shape the role Texas will play in upcoming legal decisions.

If there is one thing that Professor Mulvaney appreciates, it’s a busy schedule. As a core member of the Aggie community on and off the law school campus, Mulvaney is a faculty affiliate for the Texas A&M College of Geosciences Community Reliance Collaborative and the Texas A&M Energy Institute. He also serves as a Faculty Fellow for the College of Architecture’s Center for Health Systems & Design. In addition to his many contributions to Texas A&M, Professor Mulvaney serves as a faculty fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Property Law and was a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School during his leave from Texas A&M from 2016-2017. His newest appointment is with a Ph.D. program at Texas A&M Galveston in the upcoming fall semester. The program concentrates on coastal land use planning. The course is geared towards pursuing a non-lawyer perspective for coastal land use planning. Like many of his other obligations, this new program integrates the legal discipline with different scholarly perspectives within the A&M University System. In addition to these obligations, Professor Mulvaney managed to win the title of 1L “Professor of the Year” from 2012 to 2016.

Professor Mulvaney’s work doesn’t stop when he isn’t teaching. He serves as a member of various Association of American Law School sections and a member of the executive board for the Association for Law, Property, and Society (ALPS). These memberships help form the foundation for interdisciplinary perspective and invaluable resources. The primary takeaway from his experience is that interdisciplinary collaboration is the lifeblood of advancement. Professor Mulvaney firmly believes that multidisciplinary research is the best way to solve problems, and he has the experience to prove it. He is deeply embedded in the international scholarly community, with his connections including professors and policymakers from South Africa to the Netherlands, and from Northern Ireland to Australia. These collaborations across time zones and hemispheres allow these professors and policymakers to thoroughly contemplate objections and make assertions backed up by normative arguments. With the wealth of knowledge garnered from this extensive social capital, the possibilities for innovation become virtually limitless.

Professor Mulvaney is actively working to realize these possibilities in our backyard. Through the A&M research council, Professor Mulvaney and the sixteen other research deans for the A&M colleges collaborate on the Livable Texas initiative. Through the developing teams, group proposals, and the creation of presentations for the Texas legislature, this initiative seeks to produce tangible change in Texas. The website containing information on this project is forthcoming, so stay tuned for further updates!

The topics of land use planning, eminent domain, and property all constitute areas of Professor Mulvaney’s expertise. This knowledge is reflected in his research and publications. The dynamic between government action and property rights forms an essential thread between several of his articles, as well as the tension between categorical and fluid reactions to this dynamic. Much of Professor Mulvaney’s published works reflect how property law implicates social concerns. His work contends with the concept of ownership and how the multifaceted perception of property ownership can be used to both help and harm vulnerable populations.

For Professor Mulvaney, land use law is a dynamic and evolving discipline. In his article Property-as-Society, he explores how the perception of property shapes regulatory takings. Property is commonly perceived as an outlet for individual liberty (property-as-liberty), a means for economic investment (property-as-investment), or the marriage of the two that is borne from the societal perception of the values needed to come from property (property-as-society).

Professor Mulvaney argues that the openness to and reliance on change and value analysis at the heart of the property-as-society pushes this perspective to evaluate fairness and collective impact from decision-making. Allocative choices are weighed by how they affect the microcosm that property creates as opposed to piecewise analysis. In his article Move Along to Where? Property in Service of Democracy, Professor Mulvaney further develops this concept of property-as-society into property’s need to serve society. These two articles challenge the idea that property is estranged from morality and societal values. Instead, property is imbued with societal values and is misappropriated when its use and protection conflicts with these values.

In his article Walling Out: Rules and Standards in the Beach Access Context, Professor Mulvaney scrutinizes the trade-off between rules versus standards through the lens of beach access. His students can attest to his passion in class when rules or standards are more desirable in various legal situations. This article captures this long-standing debate within this specific issue of resource access. Much like the dunes up for debate, the legal landscape and specifics for each beach access case continue to shift. After observing the emerging popularity of rules in beach access cases, Professor Mulvaney advocates for at least consideration of a standards approach over a rules approach for this fact-specific and variable area of law.

Professor Mulvaney brings his rich experience in the public sector and research into the classroom. Students interested in learning more about working in academia or the far-reaching legacy and implications of land use would greatly benefit from reaching out to him or looking for his classes on the course calendar. In the meantime, Professor Mulvaney’s numerous research publications can provide a wealth of information to those curious about diving into the world of property law and land use.