Fulbright research in focus: Professor Jennifer McKay

Professor Jennifer McKay was fortunate the attend UC Boalt (as it was then known) to compare USA and Australian laws and justice approaches with Prof Dan Farber and Prof Michael Hanneman in the Centre for Law, Energy and the Environment.

I had a wonderful time examining California's vexed prior appropriation doctrine for water in operation, and presented talks to the American Bar Association and congresses in Sacramento, Olympia and Salt Lake City on Australia's Law reform process. I also spoke at the California Colloquium on Water in 2009 which has had 1200 views.

My work has been about looking at and suggesting reforms to water allocation plans and examining their essential distribution processes against justice considerations and the achievement of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD), especially the aspect of justice for future generations. I worked on water markets in particular.

This research has expanded to include biodiversity and energy justice. In 2019, I was invited by Fulbright to do a TedX talk in Adelaide this was called Making messy mosaic laws into jigsaw laws.

I have published over 180 items with over 2400 citations on the topics of environmental justice and co-edited books, been on the editorial board of journals and co-edit the Academy of Environmental Law Journal and I have won the Premier's medal in SA for research work on trust in  urban and rural water governance. I have recently been made a Fellow of the International Water Association and the International Water Resources Association. I continue to conduct research for the  Australian government, private sector and UNDP on water governance in  Australia and the pacific and the National Centre for Groundwater research and training and am a friend of the Peter Cullen Water and environment trust.