LEAD Latest News and Media

Call for abstracts for "Rights, Responsibilities and Disasters: Using the Law to Reduce Disaster Risk in Asia Pacific" conference (June 25-27 2024, University of Canterbury)

Papers that align with conference theme and papers which discuss current issues relating to disasters, international law and its domestic implementation in the Asia Pacific region are welcomed.

Deadline for abstract applications: 29 April 2024.

For more information, visit the Conference website or email disasterlaw@canterbury.ac.nz 

Dr Toni Collins features in QuakeCoRE Research Project Stories: Acts at Odds

After becoming aware of the damage to Statistics House in the Kaikōura Earthquake of 2006, Dr Toni Collins researched the overlap of the Building Act 2004 and the Building (Earthquake Prone Building (EPB)) Amendment Act 2016. 

"Dr Collins, with her colleague Dr Nadia Dabee, scoured the literature, court cases and government websites to clarify the Government’s intention. Even a WorkSafe Policy Statement issued in 2018 to explain the overlap between the two Acts, only confused the situation. Many owners don’t realise they are responsible for getting seismic assessments. Others are closing buildings unnecessarily. This is because the law is unclear.

Toni and Nadia have published their research in the New Zealand Universities Law Review. They call for the higher standard of the Health and Safety at Work Act to be applied as this will give occupants the highest level of protection under the law regarding building safety."

LEAD Members published in the latest Yearbook of International Disaster Law 

The latest edition (2021) of the Yearbook of International Disaster Law has just been published. It includes three articles involving Law Faculty Staff who are all part of the LEAD group:

‘As the Island Choirs Gather’ Tracing a Regional Approach to Disaster and Climate Resilience in Pacific Island Countries’: W John Hopkins, Tommaso Natoli and Leanne Avila (Leanne was a LEAD summer scholar and will be starting her LLM in June).

‘Ensuring a Disability Perspective in Disaster Law The Contribution of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ Kris Gledhill and Natalie Baird

‘Pacific Disaster Law Update” W John Hopkins and Leanne Avila

The Yearbook (published by Brill) is freely available online (due to sponsorship by the IFRC): Yearbook of International Disaster Law Online Volume 4 Issue 1 (2021) (brill.com)

- 1 May 2023

Professor John Hopkins Makes Submission to the Governance and Administration Select Committee

In the aftermath of Cyclone Garbrielle, the New Zealand Government has decided to once again introduce new legislation in the aftermath of a disaster. This time in the form of the Severe Weather Emergency Legislation Bill. This omnibus bill makes (temporary) changes to the RMA, the LGA and the CDEM Act amongst others.

LEAD's Professor John Hopkins was invited to present an oral submission to the Governance and Administration Select Committee. Although the process was expedited it was nevertheless a positive change that the Bill was referred to the Select Commitee and not passed through urgency. It is also a welcome change to see law and disaster experts being called upon to provide expert commentary on these ad hoc legal provisions.

You can check out John's contribution via this link, from timestamp 10:43.

WorkSafe to Focus on 'High Harm' Industries Over Adventure Activities

9 August 2022 Radio New Zealand

University of Canterbury law professor John Hopkins, who heads New Zealand's Institute of Law, Emergencies and Disasters, said adventure activities did not have a good safety record in this country, which he believed was an "unintended consequence" of the ACC system that removed the ability to sue for personal injury.

"If you cut corners, in most jurisdictions overseas, you risk having significant damages against you in a court case. Now we don't have that deterrent here. We've only got the Health and Safety at Work Act and various other legislation, largely managed by WorkSafe.

"So WorkSafe is all that lies between us and unsafe practices. So you've got to fund it properly."

Prosecuting companies that breached health and safety laws in court was "the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff" and was a failure of a system that was supposed to prevent harm, Hopkins said.

Whakaari / White Island: Finger pointed back at WorkSafe

9 December 2021 Radio New Zealand

Two years on from the disastrous Whakaari / White Island eruption, Rita Yousef, a lawyer representing Australian victims says the regulatory shortcomings are "terrifying". Dr John Hopkins said the Whakaari explosion, and the failures highlighted since, had brought the country's whole adventure activities safety system into question.

LISTEN: to the segment on Morning Report