Elizabeth Macpherson

Elizabeth Jane Macpherson is a New Zealand academic, of Pākehā descent^[1] and is a full professor at the University of Canterbury, specialising in indigenous water rights in Australasia and Latin America. She was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship in 2023 to work on the legal frameworks around blue carbon.

Elizabeth Macpherson
Awards	Royal Society Te Apārangi Early Career Research Excellence Award for Humanities, Rutherford Discovery Fellowship
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Melbourne
Academic work
Institutions	University of Canterbury

Academic career

Macpherson completed Master of Arts and LLB degrees at Victoria University of Wellington, and a PhD at the University of Melbourne.^[2][3] Macpherson then joined the faculty of the University of Canterbury, rising to full professor in 2024.^[4] She is a principal investigator in the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge, where she researches ecosystem-based marine management policy and climate maladaptation.^[5]

In 2019, Macpherson published the book Indigenous Water Rights in Law and Regulation: Lessons from Comparative Experience through Cambridge University Press. The book is regarded as the "first comprehensive examination of laws and policies around the world that protect Indigenous peoples’ rights to use and regulate water". It has been used in judicial and government inquiries, and was awarded the 2020 Law and Society Association of Australia and NZ prize for most outstanding book.^[6][7]

Awards

Macpherson was awarded an Early Career Research Excellence award by the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2021, for her work on "exploring opportunities for Indigenous peoples' water rights in laws and policies around the world".^[6]

In 2022 Macpherson's article Can Western water law become more ‘relational’? A survey of comparative laws affecting water across Australasia and the Americas” won the New Zealand Legal Research Foundation Sir Ian Barker Published Article Award.^[8]

In 2023, Macpherson was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship to work on the legal frameworks around blue carbon.^[9][5] On awarding the fellowship, the Royal Society said that "her research has a real-world impact on some of the most pressing socio-environmental challenges of our time".^[5]

Also in 2023, Macpherson won the University of Canterbury Advancing Sustainability Research Award, for "her contribution to environmental and natural resources law, and her focus on addressing global environmental challenges". Macpherson responded that "this is not just a recognition of my research but of Indigenous peoples who are leading legal innovations on issues of sustainability both internationally and locally".^[8]

Selected works

• Elizabeth Jane Macpherson (20 July 2019), Indigenous Water Rights in Law and Regulation, doi:10.1017/9781108611091, Wikidata Q123709585
• Elizabeth Jane Macpherson; Felipe Clavijo Ospina (6 October 2020), The pluralism of river rights in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Colombia, doi:10.31235/OSF.IO/RDH4X, Wikidata Q123709576
• Erin O’Donnell; Elizabeth Macpherson (6 December 2018). "Voice, power and legitimacy: the role of the legal person in river management in New Zealand, Chile and Australia". Australian Journal of Water Resources. 23 (1): 35–44. doi:10.1080/13241583.2018.1552545. ISSN 1324-1583. Wikidata Q123709586.
• Elizabeth Macpherson; Julia Torres Ventura; Felipe Clavijo Ospina (8 July 2020). "Constitutional Law, Ecosystems, and Indigenous Peoples in Colombia: Biocultural Rights and Legal Subjects". Transnational Environmental Law. 9 (3): 521–540. doi:10.1017/S204710252000014X. ISSN 2047-1033. Wikidata Q123709580.
• Elizabeth Macpherson (September 2017). "Beyond Recognition: Lessons from Chile for Allocating Indigenous Water Rights in Australia". University of New South Wales Law Journal. 40 (3). doi:10.53637/YQWY6573. ISSN 0313-0096. Wikidata Q123709587.
• Elizabeth Macpherson (14 February 2022), Ecosystem Rights and the Anthropocene in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, pp. 168–186, doi:10.4324/9781003175308-12, Wikidata Q123709566
• Martuwarra RiverOfLife; Alessandro Pelizzon; Anne Poelina; et al. (3 July 2021). "Yoongoorrookoo: The emergence of ancestral personhood". Griffith Law Review. 30 (3): 505–529. doi:10.1080/10383441.2021.1996882. ISSN 1038-3441. Wikidata Q123709570.