Richard Macrory

Richard Brabazon Macrory, CBE, Hon KC (born 30 March 1950) is Emeritus Professor of environmental law at University College London.

He is one of the leading environmental lawyers of his generation, and has had a significance influence of the development of British environmental law and policy.

Macrory was born in Headley, Surrey on 30 March 1950.

He was educated at Westminster School, and read jurisprudence at Christ Church, Oxford, obtaining a BA in 1971 (MA 1976).

He was called to the Bar in 1974.

Between 1975 and 1978, Macrory was the in-house lawyer at Friends of the Earth Ltd in London, and was heavily involved in the Windscale inquiry on nuclear reprocessing, then the longest planning inquiry seen in this country.

Macrory is married with two adult sons.

He has British and Irish citizenship.

Macrory began his academic at Imperial College of Science and Technology based at the newly established Centre for Environmental Technology.

He was a lecturer between 1980–1989, Reader 1989-1991, and in 1991 was promoted the first Professor Environmental Law in the United Kingdom.

In 1988 Macrory was the founding editor of the Journal of Environmental Law, and remained editor in chief until 1992.

He is currently a member of the Editorial Board.

Between 1989 and 1990 he was a member of European Law Chambers, London, and between 1991 and 2021 he was a door tenant at Brick Court Chambers.

Most of his practice involved providing advice or written opinions, but he was junior counsel in a number of significant British environmental cases:

Between 1989 and 1992.

Macrory was the first chair of the UK Environmental Law Association.

He was a specialist advisor in environmental law to the House of Commons Select Committee on the Environment on seven inquiries between 1989 and 1992 (contaminated land, Northern Ireland, beaches, European Environmental Agency, eco-labelling, EEC landfill directive, UK Environmental Agency), and subsequently a specialist advisor to the House of Commons Select Committee on Environment, Transport, and the Regions on its inquiries into eco-products, and into waste.

Between 1991 and 2003 Macrory was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and involved in eight of the Commission's investigations -

Water 1992), Waste Incineration (1993) ,Transport (1994), Soil (1996), Transport Developments since 1994 (1997), Environmental Standards (1998), Energy (2000)), Environmental Planning (2002).

Between 1994 and 1995 he was Director of the Environmental Change Unit, University of Oxford, and between 1991 and 1994 the Denton Hall Professor of Environmental Law, Imperial College.

R v Environment Agency ex parte Dockgrange [1997) Env. LR 415 (High Court, transhipment of waste) British Waterways Board v Severn Trent (2001) 3 WLR 613 (Court of Appeal, water law) R ex parte National Grid Gas v Environment Agency (2007) UKHL 30 (House of Lords, contaminated land)

Macrory served as a board member of the Environment Agency England and Wales between 1999 and 2004, and was a long-standing member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.

He was the founding editor of the Journal of Environmental Law.

In 1999 he was appointed Professor of Environmental Law at the Faculty of Laws, University College, London.

He was a Board Member of the Environment Agency England and Wales 1999-2004.

In 2001 he established the Centre for Law and the Environment within the Faculty to provide a focal point for the Faculty's developing strength in teaching and research in environmental law.

During his membership, he was elected chair of the Steering Committee of the network of European Environmental Advisory Councils 2001-2003.

In 2006, Macrory led the Cabinet Office Review on Regulatory Sanctions and his recommendations led to profound changes in the design and enforcement of sanctions in England and Wales.

Macrory was the first chair of the UK Environmental Law Association.

Macrory is a non-executive board member of the Office for Environmental Protection, an Emeritus Professor with the Faculty of Laws, University College, London and a Research Fellow at Linacre College, Oxford.

In 2007 set up and became director of the UCL Carbon Capture Legal Programme.

, a five year programme designed to explore and provide information on legal developments, nationally and internationally, in carbon capture and storage.

In 2007 he was made a Patron of the Association, and in 2016-2018 he was co-chair of the UKELA Brexit Working Party.

UKELA was neutral on the Brexit Referendum, and the Working Party produced a series of reports exploring legal implications arising from Brexit for various aspects of environmental law.

Between 2010 and 2014 he directed a major research programme, funded by the UK Space Energy, Arts and Humanities Research Council, and Economic and Social Research Council, on the potential of using earth observation technologies as an enforcement tool in environmental law.

In 2010 he was elected a Master of the Bench, Grays Inn.

In 2012, Chambers and Partners Legal Guide noted, "As a pre-eminent and pioneering academic in environmental law, Macrory remains a leading authority on the subject in both a domestic and international context. One source says: If there's anybody who knows their stuff, it's him."" In 2019, Chambers ranked him as a Senior Statesperson in environmental law.

He is the author of several books on environmental law including Regulation Enforcement and Governance in Environmental Law (2nd edition 2014) and Irresolute Clay – Shaping the Foundations of Modern Environmental Law (2020), and over 150 articles on various aspects of environmental law.

In 2014 Oxford University Press established the annual Macrory prize for the most thought-provoking and innovative article published in the Journal each year.

On retirement in 2017, he was appointed an Emeritus Professor at UCL.