Professor Michael I. Jeffery, QC
B.A.
, LL.B (U of Toronto); LL.M (Osgoode Hall,York Univ)
Professor of Law,
Director, Macquarie University Centre for Environmental Law
Immediate Past Head, Department of Environmental Law
Immediate Past Deputy Director, IUCN Commission on Environmental Law
Immediate Regional Governor, International Council of Environmental Law
Director and Vice Chair, board of Management, Environmental Defenders Office (NSW)
Editor-in-Chief, Macquarie Journal of International and Comparative Environmental
Law
Areas of Educational and Professional Expertise
- Litigation and Trial Advocacy
- Environmental Governance
- International and Comparative Environmental Law
- Trade and Environment
- Intellectual Property Rights
- Water, Air Pollution and Ocean Governance Law
Research Capability and Expertise
- Research degree supervision and training
- Academic and professional conferences, symposia, seminars and workshops
- Legal and governmental consultancy and policy advice
- Publicly funded, inter-disciplinary, and collaborative research grants
- Legal education and training
Research Grant Projects
- Governance of Water: An agreement model for Customary Law Governance (2006-2008) Anmatyerr Community, CLC, NT Gov, Pastoralists; $93,000 (co-researcher with Professor Donna Craig and Naomi Rae).
- Cultural Values of Water and Recognition in NRM Process, Structure and Institutions (2004-2007) with Anmatyerr Community, NT Gov, CLC, Macquarie Uni CEL (co-researcher with Naomi Rae and Professor Donna Craig); $310,000.
- Christensen Fund (USA) Grant ($78,000 AUD) awarded to Macquarie University through its Centre for Environmental Law - “A Project to Develop Legal Strategies to Strengthen Community-Based Institutions, Customary Laws and Environmental Management Approaches” in Melanesia. Project Directors - Professor Michael Jeffery, QC and Professor Donna Craig (September 2005).
- Macquarie University Research Grant: Principal Researcher with Professors Andy Beattie and Jim Salzman (2003).
- MUNS Grant: Principal Researcher - The Impact of Carbon Trading Schemes on Climate Change and the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Forest Resource (1999).
- MU-CEL learned in late December 2005 that a research proposal for a
large Commonwealth Environment Facilities (CERF) grant in excess of $7,000,000
was one of only 12% of the CERF applications received that were short-listed.
Professors Michael Jeffery and Donna Craig were invited to join the consortium
as two of the seven "Principal Researchers" together with co-researchers
from other universities and collaborating agencies from around the country
in applying for this grant. The consortium, led by Professor Hugh Possingham,
Director of the Ecology Centre at the University of Queensland, involved
an integrated assessment of biodiversity management options for Australia
This research grant application was withdrawn due to the fact that Professor Possingham was short listed on 2 CERF grants and could only proceed with one of them.
Higher Degree Research Supervision
Professor Jeffery currently supervises a number of PhD candidates from several countries. These include: Fernando Quintero Nader (Mexico); Min (Miranda) Jiang (PRC); Bo (Kevin) Miao (PRC); Mahito (Heat) Shindo (Japan); Xiaoyi Jiang (PRC); Chris Stone (Australia); Kip Werren (Australia). All but two of these students are recipients of full scholarships.
Brief Biographical Detail
Michael holds a Chair in Law in the Macquarie Law School at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia and is Director of the University’s Centre for Environmental Law, having served briefly as Dean of Law during the Law School’s recent restructuring. He is also Head of the Department of Environmental Law in the Macquarie Law School, a former Chairman of the Environmental Assessment Board of Ontario, Canada in the 1980s, (a position analogous to that of Chief Judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court), Michael has published and lectured extensively on a wide range of environmental and administrative law issues.
Appointed one of Canada’s youngest Queen’s Counsel in 1978, he practiced for many years at the Ontario Bar and was a senior partner (1990 – 1995) of one of Canada’s largest law firms where he headed its environmental law practice group. While in private practice, Michael was lead counsel in several major environmental law cases and represented a wide variety of clients in the manufacturing, forestry, mining and waste disposal industries. He took up residence in the United States in late 1995 to undertake research at the Natural Resources Law Center of the University of Colorado (CU) as its Distinguished Visiting Research Scholar in the area of public lands reform. In October, 1998 Professor Jeffery qualified as a legal practitioner in NSW and initially obtained a practicing certificate as a Barrister but subsequently switched rolls and presently holds a Class A unrestricted practicing certificate from the Law Society of NSW. Professor Jeffery joined the Tress Cocks & Maddox law firm briefly in January 2000 as a consultant and Special Counsel in the areas of environmental, planning and resources law.
His research interests lie primarily in the area of international environmental law and he has undertaken extensive research and published recent articles on climate change and the use of market-based financial mechanisms, environmental ethics, governance of protected areas, bioprospecting, the impact of intellectual property rights and trade-related issues on biological diversity, environmental impact assessment and the need for intervenor funding in the context of public participation.
Michael is a former Chair and Vice-Chair of the International Bar and American Bar Associations’ International Environmental Law Committees, a former advisor to the Canadian Law Reform Commission and served as Founding Chair of the Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals. He was the immediate past Deputy Chair of the IUCN’s Commission on Environmental Law and a member of the IUCN’s Global Energy Law Working Group. He is also one of the founding members of the IUCN’s Academy of Environmental Law and headed the Organising Committee of the Academy’s third Colloquium on Biodiversity Law hosted by the Macquarie University Centre for Environmental Law. Michael currently serves as a Regional Governor of the International Commission on Environmental Law based in Bonn Germany and as an elected Director of the Environmental Defenders Office (NSW). He has also been Editor-in-Chief of the Macquarie Journal of International and Comparative Environmental Law since its inception in 2004.
He is a frequent commentator and invited speaker on environmental issues and lectures extensively at universities around the world.
See also Publications
Contact Details
Centre for Environmental Law
Macquarie Law School
Macquarie University
Sydney, NSW, 2109
Australia
Tel: +61 2 9850 7042
Fax: +61 2 9850 6157
Email: michael.jeffery@mq.edu.au