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Alexander Gillespie
Professor of Law
Profile
Professor Alexander Gillespie obtained his LLB and LLM degrees with Honours from The University of Auckland. He did his PhD at Nottingham and post-doctoral studies at Colombia University in New York City. His areas of scholarship pertain to international and comparative environmental law; the laws of war; civil liberties; and a number of pressing issues of social concern.
Prof Gillespie has published 17 books – his most recent work is Volume IV of his Causes of War (1650-1800) series, published in 2021 – and has also written over 40 academic articles. He has been awarded a Rotary International Scholarship, a Fulbright Fellowship, a residency at the Rockerfeller Bellagio Centre in Italy, and the New Zealand Law Foundation International Research Fellowship. His most recent award was from the Franqcui Foundation in Belgium, with which he held a professorship at Ghent University for six months during 2018/2019. Alexander has also been the lawyer/expert on a number of international delegations and advised the New Zealand government on multiple matters of international concern.
Prof Gillespie was the first New Zealander to be named Rapporteur for the World Heritage Convention, involving international environmental diplomacy under the auspice of UNESCO. He has been engaged in policy formation for the United Nations, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and governmental, commercial and non-governmental organisations in New Zealand, Australia, the US, the UK, Ireland and Switzerland. He has also made a number of appearances before the Waitangi Tribunal and Select Committees of the New Zealand Parliament.