Dr Andrew Lawson

Biography

Andrew Lawson is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, and researcher and Deputy-Director of the Agriculture & Law Research Hub (AgLaw) at the University of New England (UNE), Armidale, Australia. In summary, Andrew researches rural environmental and social issues, teaches undergraduate and master’s level Law courses, and has a strong record in supervising domestic and international post-graduate research candidates.

His research mainly revolves around rural environmental issues – especially in relation to law, public and private governance, and institutional arrangements. Specific interests include the sustainability of rural communities, farmland stewardship and biodiversity conservation, soil governance, and rural responses to the climate challenge. He has a strong interest in the interrelationship between regulation and non-government farm stewardship programs. He enjoys working collaboratively with other researchers and with government, industry and civil society organisations, and has been part of a number of AgLaw collaborations internationally with colleagues from Brazil and elsewhere.

He also researches rural social issues – particularly in his role as a member of the Rural Transition & Succession Research Group at UNE together with other UNE Law School and Business School colleagues. This group has had a strong focus on gender and farm transition and succession. Out of this research, he created Australia’s first university qualification in transition and succession planning, which he teaches. He is a member of the Armidale chapter of the Friends of Myall Creek Memorial – which honours the Wirrayaraay people killed in the 1838 Myall Creek Massacre in northern New South Wales. He co-ordinates memorial and truth-telling events at the Oorala Aboriginal Centre as a part of the annual Myall Creek commemorations.

Andrew contributes to scholarship on research methods for environmental law and policy research and was co-editor of a multi-author book on non-doctrinal methods for environmental law research. He is a member of the management committee for UNE Law School’s International Journal of Regional, Rural and Remote Law and Policy.

Andrew is a passionate teacher, and his core teaching areas are Environmental Law, Natural Resources Law, Property Law, and Transition & Succession Planning, at undergraduate and Master’s levels. He has previously acted in Law School administrative roles including Higher Degree Research (HDR) Co-ordinator, and Academic Integrity Officer. He regularly supervises PhD and Honours research candidates, whose projects include soil carbon issues in rural Australia, access to legal services in remote localities, farm stewardship assurance schemes, the role of civil society in environmental meta-governance, the interaction of Introduced and Customary Law in environmental governance in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and land tenure issues for farmers in peri-urban Ethiopia.

Andrew has a unique combination of agricultural science and legal qualifications and has a professional background in rural and urban environmental issues. Before coming to UNE in 2012, he worked in Hong Kong for the local NGO Civic Exchange, for Land & Water Australia in Canberra, and a grassroots Landcare group in Holbrook, southern NSW.