ProfessorJohn Hopkins

Professor John Hopkins is a comparative public lawyer specialising in disaster law, emergency management law, multi-level governance, administrative justice, and anti-corruption. He is the Director of the LEAD Institute for Law, Emergencies and Disasters at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury, and Co-Lead of Disciplinary Theme 3 (Law, Planning and Economics) for the NZ Centre for Earthquake Resilience Te Hiranga Rū (QuakeCoRE). He also chairs the International Disaster, Emergency and Law Networks (IDEAL) and serves as Pacific Editor of the Yearbook of International Disaster Law.

His research focuses on disaster risk reduction, emergency powers, crisis governance, resilience policy, and legal frameworks for natural hazards across Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific. Dr Hopkins has lead major projects funded by Resilience to Nature’s Challenges, NHC-Toka Tū Ake (The NZ Hazards Commission), DEVORA (Determining Volcanic Risk in Auckland), the United Nations and the IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) Disaster Law Programme, advancing evidence-based approaches to urban resilience, volcanic risk, and earthquake governance.

In anti-corruption law, John specialises in Pacific governance, money laundering, and regional integrity systems. His recent work with Dr Chat Nguyen, in collaboration with Transparency International New Zealand (TINZ), examines the links between corruption, financial crime, and regulatory capacity in the South Pacific. Dr Hopkins is a former Board member of TINZ.

His earlier scholarship on European regionalism, devolved governance, and comparative constitutional systems remains widely cited and his still regularly contributed to this field. He continues to publish on comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, international law, and public sector accountability both in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand and globally.

John has held visiting positions at Georgetown University (NZ Fulbright Scholar), Central European University (MUNDUS-MAPP Scholar), the University of Primorska (KEENZ Scholar), and the University of Oxford (Canterbury Scholar). He was elected to the International Academy of Comparative Law in 2013 and is the current New Zealand Chair of the Australasian Law Academics Association.