Institute of Law, Emergencies and Disasters

Natalie is a Professor in the Faculty of Law | Te Kaupeka Ture at the University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha.

Natalie's research and teaching interests are in the areas of international human rights, disaster law, refugee law and Pacific legal studies - all broadly under the public law umbrella. The first part of Natalie's career was spent in the New Zealand public service including at the Crown Law Office, the Cabinet Office (Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) and the Law Commission. She also worked as a VSA volunteer at the Cambodian Defenders' Project in Phnom Penh. Natalie draws on all this expertise and experience in both her research and teaching.

Natalie is passionate and experienced in all levels of university learning and teaching – from first-year to post-graduate. She is currently the Co-Director of Postgraduate Studies in Law, and a member of the Law Faculty’s Leadership Team. Natalie has a strong personal service ethic, with much of her service reflecting the themes of equity and diversity including past governance roles with Trade Aid New Zealand and Amnesty International. Natalie is currently a part-time member of the Human Rights Review Tribunal | Te Taraipiunara Mana Tangata.

Applications of Social Ecological Systems theory and methods in the Disaster Risk Governance context. The active management of tensions endemic to cross-sector collaborations in disaster risk management, response and recovery contexts, with a special interest in the use of boundary organizations and collaborative governance to manage institutional misalignments between scientific and other domains. The use of collaborative governance arrangements to improve the research quality and relevance of national research funding programs, and - in response and recovery environments - to enhance cross-sector coordination and decrease ethical risks to impacted communities. Community resilience to natural hazards.

Associate Professor Dr Toni Collins is a specialist in land law and disaster law, with a research focus on how legal frameworks respond to major earthquake and other natural hazard events and other forms of disruption. Her work examines the resilience of legal systems to disasters and the effectiveness of contractual obligations, risk allocation mechanisms, and statutory interventions in supporting post-disaster recovery.

Toni’s PhD analysed the impacts of the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquakes on commercial landlords and tenants, offering new insights into how these relationships operate under seismic stress. Her current research extends this analysis to the 2016 Kaikōura and Wellington earthquakes, the 2023 Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle and more recently the impacts of sea level rise through climate change tracing how communities and regions are supported (or not) through legal preparedness.

Her broader interests include disaster recovery law, emergency management law, land system resilience, and the interface between land law and risk governance. Toni teaches Land Law at UC, at both introductory and advanced levels integrating contemporary case studies and disaster-related legal challenges to support students’ understanding of how the law functions in real-world contexts.

Key words: disaster, resilience, legal frameworks, legal preparedness

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.

Ibnu is a legal professional, researcher, and educator with a PhD from the University of Canterbury, with a particular interest in international law, environmental law, disaster law, climate change law, forest and biodiversity law, IT law, and commercial law. As a practicing lawyer in Indonesia with experience in teaching and legal research, he combines academic expertise with practical application. Based in Christchurch, New Zealand, he focuses on climate change, environmental governance, disaster resilience, and the role of AI in law, aiming to integrate technology and legal solutions to address global challenges.

I am a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Canterbury where I teach in the LLB and Bachelor of Criminal Justice.

My research interests are in the in the intersection between law and mental health , drawing on criminal law, mental health law, criminology, and human rights law. I take a multidisciplinary and socio-legal approach to research, based on the view that law does not operate in a vacuum and that the legitimacy of the criminal justice system can only be ensured if legislation and policy is evidence-based. I am particularly invested in determining how law and criminal justice policy can be utilised to ensure that the human rights of mentally ill persons are protected while achieving the goals of the criminal justice system.

I am currently working on projects concerning mental health law and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, prisons and disaster risk, mental health and policing, access to medical records and medication in prisons, and restorative justice.

Enquiries are welcome from prospective PhD students and collaborators interested broadly in evidence-based law and policy reform in criminal justice, mental health and justice issues, justice and human rights.