Sara C. Bronin

Sara C. Bronin (formerly Galvan) joined the faculty in 2006 and is an Associate Professor of Law and the faculty program director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Law.  A licensed architect and licensed attorney, Professor Bronin has researched and published in the areas of property, land use, historic preservation, green building, and renewable energy law.  Her scholarship focuses on creating economically and environmentally sustainable American cities.  She is often invited to speak about her work; she has recently presented at events at Yale Law School, Georgetown, the University of Pennsylvania, American University, Vanderbilt, the AIA National Convention, Yale School of Architecture, the American Association of Law Schools Conference, and the Environmental Law Institute, among other places.  She is an affiliated faculty member of the University of Connecticut Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering and has coordinated several Gallivan Conferences in real property law.  

Outside the classroom, Professor Bronin has served as one of the lead attorneys for the mixed-use, transit-oriented, LEED-Platinum 360 State Street project and has advised state and local governmental entities on strategies to facilitate places of value.  She has also been the President of the Connecticut Hispanic Bar Association (during the year it won the Hispanic National Bar's Affiliate of the Year Award), the Vice President of the Hartford Historic Preservation/Properties Commissions, and a board member of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation.  In 2012, she was appointed by Governor Malloy to serve on the School Building Projects Advisory Council and also began serving on the board of the Connecticut Urban Legal Initiative.  

Professor Bronin earned a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Arts in Plan II from the University of Texas at Austin and is a LEED accredited professional.  As a Rhodes Scholar, she received a master's degree in Economic and Social History from the University of Oxford. She received her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School, supported by a Truman Scholarship.  

Representative Publications

- Books

Historic Preservation Law in a Nutshell, with Professor J. Peter Byrne (in progress) 

Historic Preservation Law Teacher's Manual, with Professor J. Peter Byrne (in progress) 

Historic Preservation Law, with Professor J. Peter Byrne (2012)

- Book Chapters

"The Promise and Perils of Renewable Energy on Tribal Lands," in Tribes, Land, and the Environment (Ezra Rosser & Sarah Krakoff, eds., Ashgate Press) (2012)

- Journal Articles

"Community Energy," with Hannah J. Wiseman, San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law, forthcoming 2013 

Building-Related Renewable Energy and the Case of 360 State Street, 65 Vanderbilt L. Rev. 1875 (2012) 

Solar Rights for Texas Property Owners, 89 Texas L. Rev. See Also 79 (2011)

Curbing Energy Sprawl with Microgrids, 43 Conn. L. Rev. 547 (2010)

Modern Lights, 80 U. Colo. L. Rev. 101 (2009)

Solar Rights, 89 B. U. L. Rev. 1217 (2009)

The Quiet Revolution Revived: Sustainable Design, Land Use Regulation, and the States, 93 Minn. L. Rev. 231 (2008)

Wrestling with MUDs to Pin Down the Truth About Special Districts, 75 Fordham L. Rev. 3041 (2007)

Rehabilitating Rehab through State Building Codes, 115 Yale L.J. 1744 (2006)

Beyond Worship: The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 and Religious Institutions' Auxiliary Uses, 24 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 207 (2006)

Gone Too Far': Oregon's Measure 37 and the Perils of Over-Regulating Land Use, 23 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 587 (2005)

- Other Writing 

New Haven’s Elm City Market: Coop Expands Access to Fresh Food, Fed Res. Bank of Boston Communities & Banking, Spring 2011, at 15