Barry Barton has been a member of the Faculty of Law since 1991. His field of research is energy, natural resources, and climate change law. He studied law and geography at the University of Auckland, practised law in Auckland, and spent a decade in Canada, first at the University of British Columbia and then the Canadian Institute of Resources Law at the University of Calgary. He moved back to New Zealand to join the new School of Law at the University of Waikato in 1991.

He is active in the Section on Energy, Environment, Resources and Infrastructure Law of the International Bar Association, as a member of the Section’s Academic Advisory Group. Through that Group and various research projects, he has numerous international connections, and he maintains close ties with Canadian universities and practitioners. In New Zealand, he is a director of the Environmental Defence Society. With these connections, he has good relationships with end-users of research, in companies, law firms, government departments and NGOs.