AProf Alberto Costi
Associate Professor
School of Law
address
Phone: 04 463 6415
Fax: 04 463 6365
Location: Room 306, Government Building, 55 Lambton Quay, Pipitea Campus
Office Hours: Tuesday 2-4pm
LLB Montr, DipInt'l&CompLaw San Diego, DipAdvEurLS College of Europe Bruges, LLM Harv
Profile
Alberto Costi's main teaching and research interests are in public international law, with specializations in the law of armed conflict, international criminal law, international human rights law, the law of international organisations and international environmental law, and in comparative law and EU law. In all those areas, he has published extensively, presented papers at numerous international conferences, commented in the media and appeared before parliamentary committees. He has also advised a number of governments and other bodies on international law and EU law issues. He currently sits on the editorial or advisory board of Environmental Policy and Governance, the Revue Juridique Polynsienne, the Revue Quebecoise de Droit International, the New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law, the Victoria University of Wellington Law Review and the New Zealand Yearbook of International Law. He is a member of the New Zealand International Humanitarian Law Committee and serves as the Secretary-General of the International Law Association New Zealand Branch and the Vice-President of the New Zealand Association for Comparative Law.
Former professional commitments include clerkship at the Supreme Court of Canada and academic positions at Keele University in England and at the Central European University in Budapest. In addition, he has acted as Visiting Professor in Montenegro and Kirgyzstan, at the Faculty of Law of the University of Western Ontario in Canada and at the College of Law of the University of Iowa in the USA. He was a Visiting Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford in 1998-1999 and a member of the External Advisory Board, National Centre for Research on Europe (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) from 2004 to 2006.
Research Interests
- Public International Law
- Law of Armed Conflict
- International Criminal Law
- International Environmental Law
- Comparative Law
- European Union Law
- Public Law
Areas of Supervision (PhD and LLM)
- Public International Law
- Law of Armed Conflict
- International Environmental Law
- Comparative Law
- Public Law
Current Research
Alberto Costi's recent projects have focused on transitional justice and more generally international humanitarian law, including studies of international and hybrid tribunals with particular reference to Bosnia, Cambodia, Lebanon and Burundi (for publication in a book of cases and materials and as a series of articles in legal journals). He is also in the process of completing the second edition of The Laws of New Zealand - International Law: Principles (LexisNexis, Wellington, forthcoming 2011) and acts as editor-in-chief jointly with Professor Scott Davidson for International Law - A New Zealand Perspective (LexisNexis, Wellington, forthcoming 2011).
Selection of Publications
Special Editor, (2010) 41 Victoria University of Wellington Law Review (Issue No 2 devoted to the 60th Anniversary of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and International Humanitarian Law).
"Addressing the Major Legal, Political, and Practical Obstacles Facing Hybrid Tribunals in Post-Conflict Situations: Learning from Past Experience and Lessons for the Future" in Beth A Griech-Polelle (ed) The Nuremberg War Crimes Trials and Their Policy Consequences Today (Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2008) 135-157.
"The 60th Anniversary of the Genocide Convention" (2008) 39 Victoria University of Wellington Law Review 831-849.
"The Hariri Tribunal" (2007) 13 Revue Juridique Polynsienne 169-191.
Alberto Costi and Neil Boister (editors) Droit Pnal International dans le Pacifique: Tentatives d'Harmonisation Rgionale / Regionalising International Criminal Law in the Pacific (New Zealand Association for Comparative Law/Association de Lgislation Compare des Pays du Pacifique, Wellington, 2006) xxvii + 251 pp.
Alberto Costi and Yves-Louis Sage (editors) Droit de l'Environnement dans le Pacifique: Problmatiques et Perspectives Croises / Environmental Law in the Pacific: International and Comparative Perspectives (New Zealand Association for Comparative Law/Association de Lgislation Compare des Pays du Pacifique, Wellington, 2005) xxv + 372 pp.
"Environmental Protection, Economic Growth and Environmental Justice: Are They Compatible in Central and Eastern Europe?" in J Agyeman, R Bullard and B Evans (eds) Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World (Earthscan/MIT Press, London/Cambridge (MA), 2003) 289-310.