Rate My Professor Nicola Wheen

Professor Nicola Wheen is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Otago, where she teaches and convenes Public Law, Environmental Law, and International Environmental Law. She holds a BA and an LLM from the University of Otago. Wheen joined the university as a student in 1984 and the academic staff in 1989. Her research examines how law responds to environmental problems, including international whaling, rights to use freshwater, wildlife conservation, climate change, fishing-related mortalities of marine mammals, genetically modified organisms, conservation of Māori-owned indigenous forests, and the regulation of sex work using planning law. She also researches public law and Te Tiriti o Waitangi / Treaty of Waitangi. Wheen has particular expertise in collaborative research, having co-edited books on the Waitangi Tribunal and Treaty of Waitangi settlements, contributed to multi-disciplinary publications and research centres at Otago that bridge social and physical sciences, served on editorial boards including for Otago University Press, and supervised more than 50 postgraduate and Honours research students. Her work informs her teaching and has supported conservation organisations and political parties in advocating for improvements in New Zealand’s environmental law. In 2023, she delivered her inaugural professorial lecture on law’s response to environmental issues.

Wheen’s key publications include co-editing The Waitangi Tribunal: Te Roopu Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi (2004, updated 2016) and Treaty of Waitangi Settlements (2012), as well as authoring A history of New Zealand environmental law (2002). Recent works feature chapters in Te Tiriti o Waitangi relationships: People, politics and law (2024) on Treaty principles clauses, and articles such as Environmental law('s) problems: The law and fishing-related mortalities of New Zealand sea lions and dolphins (Otago Law Review, 2024), The stultifying effect of the elaboration of Treaty Principles clauses in New Zealand legislation (Public Law Review, 2025), and Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Polar Law (2025). She is a member of the Coastal People: Southern Skies collaboration, connecting communities with research to rebuild coastal ecosystems.