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Sean Llyness

faculty

Sean Lyness he/him

Assistant Professor

Law School / Faculty

Curriculum Vitae

Contact

508-985-1120

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UMass School of Law 241

Education

Harvard Law SchoolJD
Brown UniversityAB

Teaching

Courses

An exploration of how statutes and regulations shape the modern legal system. The first part of the course examines the competing theories of statutory interpretation and how courts choose between ¿letter¿ and ¿spirit¿ of the law. The second part introduces the interpretive tools courts deploy, including legislative history, semantic and substantive canons, and doctrines of constitutional avoidance. The third part turns to the administrative state: the delegation of power to agencies, presidential and congressional control, and judicial review of agency action. Along the way, we will consider broader questions of institutional design, democratic accountability, and the separation of powers.

Research

Research interests

  • Environmental Law
  • Water Law
  • Natural Resources Law
  • State and Local Government Law

Select publications

See curriculum vitae for more publications

Sean Lyness is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Massachusetts School of Law, where he teaches Civil Procedure, Water Law, and Legislation & Regulation. His research focuses on environmental and natural resources law at the state and local levels, with particular emphasis on the public trust doctrine and public access to natural resources.
 
Before joining UMass Law, Professor Lyness served on the faculty of New England Law | Boston for five years. He previously worked as a Special Assistant Attorney General in the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, handling cases in the Environmental, Open Government, and Litigation Units. He began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Alice B. Gibney, Presiding Justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court.
 
Professor Lyness earned his JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School and his AB in Political Science from Brown University.