Paul Martin
Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law (AgLaw)
Professor Paul Martin is the Director of the Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law (AgLaw) within the School of Law at the University of New England. The Aglaw Centre researches rural governance, particularly of natural resources and the interests of rural (mainly indigenous) people. At the end of 2014 the Centre had three full time scholars, five postdoctoral researchers, and 12 doctoral candidates, with funded research exceeding AUD $6 million under its management.
The Centre uses unique multidisciplinary methods to understand the ‘real world’ dynamics of governance systems. The issues researched are as diverse as biodiversity protection, invasive species, and economic opportunities for indigenous people. Among many research issues we have addressed are environmental financing and tax reform, transboundary agreements for biodiversity protection in Central Asia, soils governance in China and Mongolia, water governance in Australia, and reforms to regulatory ‘architecture’ and process. Team members have worked on issues in Australia, the United States, Bangladesh, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, China and other jurisdictions.
In leading the Centre over the 10 years since it commenced operation, Paul has drawn on his prior career as a corporate lawyer, corporate advisor, venture capitalist and chairman of public and private companies; as well as his leadership of environmental organisations and public policy research.
Paul has more than 100 scholarly publications and holds a number of scholarly positions. Recently, Paul’s roles have included conducting seminars in China, Brazil and the United Kingdom on methodologies for non-doctrinal environmental law research, academic leadership of a joint IUCN World Commission of Environmental Law (WCEL) and Environmental Law Centre project on evaluation of environmental law, and joint Chairmanship of the WCEL Specialist Group on Sustainable Soils and Agricultural Systems.