Academy Fellow

Rosemary Lyster is the Professor of Climate and Environmental Law at the University of Sydney Law School, The University of Sydney. She has been elected a Fellow of Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA) and of the Australian Academy of Law (FAAL) in recognition of her international and domestic research leadership and impact in the area of Climate and Environmental Law, specialising in Climate Disaster Law. In this area she has published the following books: Rosemary Lyster, Danielle Celermajer and Philippa MacCormack Multispecies Climate Justice, Disasters and Responsibility (Edward Elgar: 2026); Rosemary Lyster and Robert M. Verchick (eds) Climate Disaster Law (Edward Elgar: 2018) and Rosemary Lyster Climate Justice and Disaster Law (Cambridge University Press: 2015). In addition to these books, over the past three decades Rosemary has produced a significant and world-leading body of publications. Rosemary also specialises in Energy and Climate Law, REDD+, and Water Law and Climate Change. In addition to her publications, Rosemary has held two Australian Research Council Discovery Project grants relating to building resilience in Australia’s electricity infrastructure in the face of extreme weather events, and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) in Indonesia.

Rosemary has developed many world-first postgraduate units of study including: Energy and Climate Law; Water Law and Climate Change; Law, Tropical Forests and Carbon; Climate Justice and Disaster Law; Comparative Climate Law; and Energy and Water Security Law. All of these units are research-led drawing on Rosemary’s extensive publications. Rosemary has also taught Administrative Law to approximately three thousand LLB and JD students about the importance of the Rule of Law, the separation of powers and democratic government.

Rosemary has held senior research and outreach and engagement roles. She was Director, or Co-Director, of the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law (ACCEL) at The University of Sydney Law School for 18 years (2003-2021). During this time, the Centre developed an international and domestic reputation as a centre of research and teaching excellence as well as hosting international conferences and outreach and engagement public seminars every year. Rosemary has also been a Key Researcher at the University’s multidisciplinary Sydney Environment Institute including being a founding Co-Director of a new Climate Adaptation and Disaster Cluster. Rosemary has also contributed to the legal profession as a consultant to PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal (2001-2006) and King & Wood Mallesons (2006-2013).

In recognition of these contributions, in 2024 Rosemary was appointed to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development’s Academic Circle. In 2018, she was recognised by the Australian Financial Review as one of the ‘100 Women of Influence’ in the Public Policy category. This followed her 2015 appointment by the Victorian government to a three-person panel to review its Climate Change Act and make recommendations to place it as a leader on climate change. Rosemary has also held prestigious academic appointments as Visiting Professor, University of Colorado Law School (2016); Visiting Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge (2014, 2009); and a Herbert Smith Freehills Visiting Professor at Cambridge Law School (2013).

·      1987 – 1995 University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

·      1996-current The University of Sydney Law School

·      2025 appointed to Academic Task Force to advise a) Legal and policy advisors of Permanent Missions of States to the United Nations in New York; and

b) Legal and humanitarian officers of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on the draft Treaty on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters.

·      2024-current, appointed to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development’s advisory Academic Circle

·      2016 appointed Visiting Professor, University of Colorado Law School

·      2015 appointed to Victorian government Independent Review Committee (IRC) to review the state's Climate Change Act 2010 and make recommendations to place Victoria as a leader on climate change

·      2014 appointed a Visiting Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge

·      2013 appointed a Herbert Smith Freehills Visiting Professor at Cambridge Law School

·      2009 appointed a Visiting Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law FAAL

Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia FASSA

2018 Australian Financial Review ‘100 Women of Influence’ in Public Policy

Member of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law

1.Lyster, R, Celermajer, D, McCormack, P 2026, Multispecies Climate Justice, Disasters and Responsibility, Edward Elgar Publishing, England

2. Lyster, R 2015, Climate Justice and Disaster Law, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England

3. Lyster, R., Verchick, R (Eds) 2018, Climate Disaster Law: Barriers and Opportunities, Edward Elgar Publishing, England

4. Lyster, R, Couzens, E, Wardle, G 2024, ‘Australia's Biodiversity and the Bushfire Climate Catastrophe: Neoliberalism, Causality, Responsibility and Recovery’ Environmental and Planning Law Journal, 40(3), 168-197

5. Lyster R, 2026, 'Climate disasters require ‘Big Country Thinking’: is this possible when neoliberalism retracts and hobbles the state and depoliticises the climate emergency?' in Kennedy A, Preston BJ, Maguire R, Paloniitty T (Eds),

Re-imagining Environmental Law, Edward Elgar Publishing, England 124-160