PROFESSOR JOHN C BECKER

Professor John Becker

U.S Senior Specialist, 2005

Scholar story

After my visit to Australia in February, 2005, Paul Martin, Executive Director of the UNE Centre for Agriculture and Law, and I maintained contact as we began to identify a variety of opportunities that were of mutual interest. Paul visited North America in 2006 and I hosted him while he visited Penn State University. Paul gave a seminar at Penn State and met with various University administrators and interested faculty members to discuss their interest in a variety of collaborative research opportunities. A memorandum of understanding between the universities that supported these efforts was also developed.

In 2007, a colleague from Penn State, James Shortle, spent time visiting the Centre and collaborating on a research project in the Centre. Later that year, Paul Martin, Miriam Verbeek, two colleagues from Penn State, Al Luloff and Jim Finley, Don Tilman a colleague from Oklahoma State University and I developed a research proposal which is now before the National Science Foundation Human and Social Dynamics panel for funding consideration. This proposal centers on the use of social and behavioral science principles in the reform of environmental law and regulation. Paul Martin has been involved with this topic for several years and I have shared his views with students as part of my teaching and research interest in the future role of law and regulation as tools in problem solving situations.

In 2008 I returned to the UNE Centre for Agriculture and Law as part of a six month sabbatical leave. The work I am doing here addresses some of the behavioral science work we have been doing, but also branches out into two new areas. One of these areas is a study of the Australian water law reform program. I am most interested in this work as it will allow me to examine solutions to problems that are just beginning to surface in the eastern United States. Australia’s experience in moving to a water management system is one that other governments will face in future years. A study of the Australian approach to allocating a valuable, but increasingly unavailable, resource will be useful to countries facing similar problems and seeking to evaluate options and alternatives.

I believe that the dividends earned from the 2005 investment have been considerable both to me and to UNE. I had the honor and privilege to work with colleagues who are innovative in their thinking and their design of solutions to problems. As a laboratory to consider environmental problems Australia provides an excellent opportunity to examine these problems and study proposed solutions. As a legal scholar the fact that we share a common legal tradition allows us to identify how these traditions have evolved over time and in response to changing circumstances. I believe UNE benefited through the collaborations and exchanges we have made in the past few years. We are looking forward to exploiting these opportunities further in the coming years.