Adjunct Professor Rob Fowler

  • Biography/ Background

    Rob Fowler is an Adjunct Professor in the Law School at the University of Adelaide (since January 2021). He has worked in the field of environmental law for fifty years, during which time he:

             - co-founded the Australian Centre for Environmental Law (ACEL) in 1990;

           - was Dean of the Law School at the University of Adelaide (1995-98);

            - held a Chair in International Environmental Law at the University of South Australia (2001-8)

            - was an Adjunct Professor in the Law School, University of South Australia (2008-2020).


    He has also served as:

          - the Chair of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law (IUCNAEL) (2008-2012);

          - a member of the Board of the South Australian Environment Protection Authority (2011 – 2017);

          - Chair of the South Australian Environmental Defender’s Office (2001-2009);

          - President of the Conservation Council of South Australia (2011-2014);  

          - a Vice President of the Australian Conservation Foundation (2008-2015); 

          - member of the Wakefield Futures Group (2015-2024) and its Director (2021-2024) 

           - the Convenor of the 15-member Australian Panel of Experts in Environmental Law (APEEL), which produced the Blueprint for the     Next Generation of Australian Environmental Law (2018).

    He currently serves as the conservation representative on the Lake Eyre Basin Community Advisory Committee (since 2018). 

     

  • Awards & Achievements

    ·      Fulbright Professional Scholarship on Climate Change and Clean Energy, 2015 (investigating US environmental federalism at George Washington University Law School in Washington DC, July - November 2015)

     

    ·      Mahla Pearlman Oration, Federal Court of Australia, Sydney, 6th March 2014

     

    ·      Awarded life membership, SA Environmental Defenders Office, December 2011

     

    ·      Award by the Law Council of Australia for life-time contribution to environmental law (presented in Sydney, November 2011)

     

    ·    National Environmental Law Association (NELA) Award for Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Law, August 1991. 

    Other academic recognition has included:

    Fulbright Senior Scholar, 1992-93 (to undertake research in the United States on environmental law and transnational corporations, visiting Environmental Law Institute, Washington DC and United Nations Centre for Transnational Corporations, New York)

    Distinguished Natural Resources Law Visitor, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, USA (1994)

    Fulbright Professional Scholarship on Climate Change and Clean Energy, investigating US environmental federalism, at George Washington University Law School, Washington DC, 2015.  


     

     

  • Publications

    See full CV attached to this home page under "Files"

  • Professional Interests

    Rob Fowler's professional interests involve teaching and research in the fields of environmental and natural resources law, with a particualr interest in environmental impact assessment law, climate change law, biodiversity conservation law and soils law. His scholarship covers domestic, comparative and international aspects of these fields. He is currently engaged in writing a book on the prospect of impending global-scale collapse, its core drivers, the barriers to its avoidance, and the possible need for adaptation measures, including those of a legal nature.   

  • Files

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Entry last updated: Wednesday, 12 Nov 2025