Elizabeth Jane Macpherson is a New Zealand academic, of Pākehā descent[1] and is a full professor at the University of Canterbury, specialising in indigenous water rights in Australasia and Latin America.
[4] She is a principal investigator in the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge, where she researches ecosystem-based marine management policy and climate maladaptation.
[5] In 2019, Macpherson published the book Indigenous Water Rights in Law and Regulation: Lessons from Comparative Experience through Cambridge University Press.
The book is regarded as the "first comprehensive examination of laws and policies around the world that protect Indigenous peoples’ rights to use and regulate water".
A survey of comparative laws affecting water across Australasia and the Americas” won the New Zealand Legal Research Foundation Sir Ian Barker Published Article Award.