These papers contain environmental studies course files, correspondence, notes, research materials, photographs, and recorded lectures relating to Marc McGinnes' tenure as a professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Barbara, as well as his work with the Institute for Peaceful Resolution of Conflict and the Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara, California. Also included are case files, research reports, and conference proceedings relating to his career as a lawyer and legal ecologist.

In June of 1969, Marc McGinnes was a young lawyer when Republican Representative Pete McCloskey encouraged him to move to Santa Barbara to start the new field of environmental law. As an environmental activist and lawyer since 1969, Marc McGinnes led the founding of one of the first ecology centers in 1970. Concurrent to the founding, McGinnes began his teaching career in 1970 at UC Santa Barbara in one of the first environmental studies programs. His course, Principles of Environmental Law, is one of the longest-running undergraduate courses in environmental law in the United States. His teachings covered environmental law, policy, and ecopsychology. As a Stanford University graduate and recipient of a law degree from UC Berkeley, in addition to his teaching, McGinnes has pursued parallel careers as both an environmental lawyer and a legal ecologist. McGinnes was a founder of one of the first public interest environmental firms, the Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara, in 1977, as well as the Institute for Peaceful Resolution of Conflict. McGinnes is a former Alfred P. Sloan, Rotary International Foundation, and Ford Foundation scholar and fellow. In 2005, after over thirty years of teaching, McGinnes retired.

19.6 linear feet (19 document boxes, 1 flat box, 107 videocassettes, 6 audiocassettes, 1 DVD)

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

The collection is open for research.