Professor Andrea Ross
Professor in Law
Dundee Law School, School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
Contact
Biography
Andrea Ross joined what is now the School of Law at the University of Dundee in 1996, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in January 2000, to Reader in 2011 and to Professor of Environmental Law in 2012. She was previously a lecturer in the Department of Land Economy at the University of Aberdeen. A qualified barrister and solicitor in Ontario Canada, she has also worked as corporate counsel in the head office of investment company Midland Walwyn Inc.
Professor Ross has taught and researched in the areas of public and environmental law for almost 20 years. The co-author of a book on Scottish devolution and the editor of a collection on environmental regulation, she is most well-known for her extensive research into the concept of sustainable development. Her book Sustainable Development Law in the UK from Rhetoric to Reality (2012, Earthscan / Routledge) among other things, explores how law can be used to support best practice in implementing sustainable development. Ms Ross has held research grants from the AHRC, ESRC, British Academy, British Council, UKCLE, SPTL, Scottish Natural Heritage and Overseas Development Agency. She has contributed to inquiries both in the UK and Scottish Parliaments.
She regularly responds to consultations in relation to UK, Scottish and Welsh environmental and planning law and is the academic member of the Law Society for Scotland’s planning law sub-committee. She is a member of the Society of Legal Scholars, Socio-Legal Studies Association, International Sustainable Development Research Society and is a regular contributor to academic and professional journals and conferences.
Research
Two overarching themes are prominent in her research: the accountability of government and the implementation of sustainable development. Recent work on governance includes an examination of the implementation of Community law in the Scotland and Wales post devolution funded by the AHRC.
Work into governance for sustainable development has examined the evolution of the UK’s interpretation of sustainable development and its effect on the Government's environmental agenda; the UK approach to sustainable development in government as a case study in joined up working; the approach taken in Scotland to sustainable development in government post devolution; the use of the term ‘sustainable development’ in Acts / Measures of the UK, Scottish, NI and Welsh legislatures, and the relationship between strategies and indicators for sustainable development.
Funding from the British Council allowed Ms Ross to re examine the value of sustainable development in the context of 21st century issues such as climate change. Together with Jones (Aberyswyth) and fundined by the AHRC, she is examining the connections and tensions between nationalist and sustainability discourses. Her work is informing action on embedding sustainable development in Scotland by the Scottish Parliament and also in Wales, where it is highly relevant to the design of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill.
Teaching
Undergraduate:- Foundations of Law, English Property Law, Planning law, Environmental law
Postgraduate:- Environmental Regulation, Sustainable Development, Environmental Justice.
Professor Ross offers research supervision in the fields of environmental law and policy, planning law, sustainable development law, multi-level governance and constitutional law.
Ms Ross regularly presents at seminars on Education for Sustainable Development such as those provided by the Higher Education Academy, individual universities and the United Kingdom Centre for Legal Education. In 2002, she was part of the team which produced a report into the teaching of environmental law funded by UKCLE.