ABSTRACT
Review of the forestry-law literature reveals a number of patterns which have relevance to the development of a research agenda for forest law. The clearest pattern emerges from the historical division between public and private law. Forestry-law studies take many forms, most notably scholastic legal research, descriptive studies, interdisciplinary studies, and case studies. The institutional environment of forestry has become "legalized" far beyond anything ever anticipated by the forestry profession. The new legal environment of forestry results not merely from a quantitative increase in law but more from an increased reliance on administrative agency regulation. There has occurred a dramatic growth in regulation of environmental conditions important to forestry. Forestry has long-standing and continuing concerns laws that enable as well as constrain forest ownership and commerce in forest products. Legal research and forest resource economics research have much to offer the forestry community.
