Luke Steele LLB (Hons), LLM specialises in nature and environmental law and policy and is currently pursuing a PhD on reforming regulation to protect and enhance the UK’s uplands.
Luke Steele specialises in the law, regulation and governance of the natural environment. His work examines how environmental law and policy shape the management of land and natural resources, influencing biodiversity, carbon storage, clean air and water, flood resilience and climate mitigation and adaptation He is currently undertaking a PhD considering how environmental regulation and policy can better protect and enhance the UK’s uplands.
His work spans a wide range of habitats and landscapes, including peatlands, species-rich grasslands, woodlands, rivers and waterways and the urban environment. Although each faces different pressures, they share the common characteristic that their long-term condition depends as much on the institutions, incentives and regulatory frameworks that govern their management as on ecological processes.
Luke’s work explores how institutions, regulation and policy shape environmental outcomes. He has a particular interest in landscape-scale restoration, natural capital, river health, ecosystem services and the role of public and corporate policy in managing environmental assets as interconnected systems.
Before beginning his doctoral research, Luke completed an LLM in Natural Resources and Environmental Law and Policy, specialising in the regulation of intensive land management practices. He was awarded a distinction for his dissertation, Analysing the effectiveness of current regulation for protecting and enhancing northern England’s upland environment.
Alongside his academic research, Luke has worked across environmental policy, public affairs and legislative development. His work has contributed to policy and regulatory reforms, including securing changes to land management to benefit wildlife and habitats, governance for improving the health of rivers and water catchments, and helping to secure the introduction of mandatory CCTV in English abattoirs, having won the support of the then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Luke regularly provides research, commentary and analysis on upland conservation in the national and regional media including The Times, The Guardian, Yorkshire Post and BBC News.
