Tributes for MBE Professor

Prof McAuslan died, aged 75 ,in hospital in Warwick after a short illness on January 11.

He was born in Bournemouth and lived in Leamington for a large part of his life.

Educated at Shrewsbury School and later at Oxford University where he studied law and obtained a BA and BCL degree, Prof McAuslan was a founder member of, and taught at the University of Dar es Salaam from 1961 to 1966, specialising in public law and land law.

He then taught at the London School of Economics (LSE) before becoming one of the four founder members of the School of Law at Warwick University where he pioneered courses in planning law and environmental law.

He returned to LSE as professor of public law from where he was invited to join the United Nations Centre of Human Settlements in Nairobi as a land management adviser and Coordinator of the Global Urban Management Programme.

As a Leamington resident Prof McAuslan was a member of Warwick District Council from 1973-1976 and again from 1979 to 1983.

He became a United Nations Consultant on Planning legislation and has drafted or revised the planning legislation and/or constitutions of most countries in the Commonwealth.

Having retired from a role with University College London with the title of Professor Emeritus in 1999, Prof McAuslan was made an MBE in 2001 for services to African land use and Environment.

In recent years he has worked with Middle Eastern governments, in a number of Eastern European post communist countries, in Malaysia, the Maldives and China as well as a troubled areas including Afghanistan and the Sudan.

In January 2013 there was a conference in his honour at the Birkbeck College, University of London, with contributors from many countries.

At the time of his death he was involved with the establishment of a management structure and the running of the new law school in Kuwait.

Prof McAuslan has been described as “a man with a prodigious intellect with an amazing commitment to social justice and legal education”.

He is survived by his wife Dorrette, daughter Fiona and grandson Marlowe.

His funeral takes place at Leamington Baptist Church on Monday from noon.