jennifer mckay
Fulbright Senior Scholar
“As mature water economies, Australia and the United States grapple the with triple bottom line and balancing use with environmental protection.”
Dr Jennifer McKay, Professor of Business Law at the University of South Australia, is the recipient of a 2008 Fulbright Senior Scholarship. Jennifer will travel to the Boalt School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, to research water allocation and sustainable development law for water use. A graduate of the University of Melbourne with a PhD in geography and Bachelor of Arts, Jennifer also holds of LLB from the University of Adelaide and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Studies from the University of South Australia.
Jennifer research, From water allocation and use laws to sustainable development laws for water use- toward a jurisprudence called sustainable development law in the US and Australia, will commence in August 2008 for three months.
“In my research state water laws will be reviewed in West and Eastern U.S. and the ambit of the sustainable development laws for water use compared to Australia. In some jurisdictions judge’s cases will be compared and activist judges will be interviewed. This will define the evolving concept of sustainable development law,” explains Jennifer.
Jennifer wants to compare laws, interpretation and administration of them in U.S. and Australia, both mature water economies in Federations.
“The issue will provoke controversy when water is removed from consumptive pool for farmers and as urban dwellers need to change water use habits. Judges will be at the forefront of this angst, in reaching sensible decisions that promote community acceptance. This study will have relevance to other Federations such as Canada, as well as to less mature water economies.”
Upon returning to Australia, Jennifer plans to disseminate and share her research outputs with senior water public policy makers and lawyers in Australia and the U.S. through professional appointments, presentations, as well as through senior membership of international organizations such as the International Water Association and International Water Law association, International Water Resources Association and her roles on editorial boards of journals Water Policy, Water International, and Australian Journal of Environmental Management.
Over the last 20 years Jennifer has edited three books for Oxford University Press, the Melbourne University Press and National Groundwater Association (USA), publish over 60 refereed journal articles, been an invited guest at Rosenberg International Water policy forums on four continents, been an editor for the Resources for the Future series on International Water policy and received the key to the City of Austin for lectures on groundwater management.