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4.In the late 1980s, law schools again responded to an extraordinary new burst of student interest in
environmental law. In the last six years, there has been a 69-percent increase in the number of
environmental courses taught by full-time faculty in law schools and a 60-percent increase in the number
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of faculty teaching such courses. In just the last three academic years, the number of environmental courses
has increased by 48 percent, and the number of full-time faculty teaching such courses has increased by 40
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percent. As a result, the growth of environmental courses and faculty has substantially outpaced growth in
law school enrollments (see Figures 2 and 3 on pages 225 and 226). The number of students enrolled at law
schools approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) increased by 43 percent from 1971 to 1992, but
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the number of environmental courses at law schools increased by 138 percent. In the 1986 academic year,
there were only 1.27 environmental courses per 1,000 students en rolled in ABA-approved law schools,
but, by 1992, there were 1.93 courses per 1,000 students. Although the number of ABA-approved law
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schools increased by less than 20 percent from 1971 to 1992 (from 147 to 176), the number of full-time
law school faculty teaching environmental law increased by nearly 120 percent (from 109 to 238). In 1986,
there were only 0.85 full-time environmental faculty per school, but, by 1992, this ratio had risen to 1.35.