Introducing Bjørn-Oliver Magsig
At the start of the year, the Faculty of Law welcomed Dr Bjørn-Oliver Magsig to the Faculty of Law to teach Climate Change Law and Policy, Law of Freshwater Resources, and Property Law.
Bjørn-Oliver came from University College Cork (Ireland), where he was a Lecturer in Law and the Director of the LLM programme in Marine and Maritime Law.
Prior to this, he was a Research Fellow at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Leipzig, Germany) where his work focused on international and comparative environmental law, environmental diplomacy, and the links between natural resources and international security—often from an interdisciplinary perspective.
We asked Bjørn-Oliver a few questions about his role as a senior lecturer at the University, his research, and what he enjoys doing in his downtime.
Why did you come to Victoria University of Wellington?
The Faculty of Law at Victoria University of Wellington is of a high calibre, diverse, and includes an excellent portfolio of locally and internationally focused research and teaching. Having worked in numerous countries around the world on cross-cutting environmental issues of global relevance, I believe the Faculty provides both a fantastic space to continue that work and new opportunities to expand this research in the Pacific region.
Being an academic is a privileged vocation which enables me to research and teach on critical issues of our time, including the sustainable management of freshwater resources, the protection of the marine environment and climate change. Through academia, I am challenging others to engage with these critical issues.
What attracted you to New Zealand?
I have been a fan of New Zealand’s outstanding nature, good quality of life and friendly people since my first visit here almost 10 years ago. My Kiwi wife and I think that New Zealand is also a great place to raise a family – and for all these reasons we decided to make Aotearoa our new home.
What do you consider the highlights of your career to date?
The highlights of my career are where I have had the opportunity to translate academic research into high impact work. For example, I was invited by the Hague Institute for Global Justice as an expert in international law where I took part in the Geneva Initiative negotiations on ‘Water as a Permanent Status Issue in the Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations’ and advised the delegates on international law and human rights issues concerning their latent conflict over freshwater resources. I was pleased to see that the fruitful discussions during and after the seminar lead to several collaborative projects between the generally hostile parties.
What inspired your interest in the law and the environment?
A healthy environment is central to our very existence, and I have always been interested in the complex challenges which hamper effective cooperation on protecting the environment. For example, why is it that the science on anthropogenic climate change has been robust for decades, but we still fail to agree on and implement strong legal obligations to prevent dangerous climate change? I am convinced that law has a key role to play in bridging the gaps between knowledge and action, and between inaction and responsibility.
These issues are in my view the most critical of our time. Although many positive developments have occurred to address the state of our global environment, there is still an enormous amount of work to do.
What do you enjoy doing in your downtime?
I am a big fan of spending time in the outdoors and adventure travel together with my family. Over the past few years we have been fortunate enough to spend loads of time tramping in the Italian, Austrian and German Alps and cycle touring along the Baltic Sea. Closer to home, I enjoy a good competitive game of tennis.
Having only been in Wellington a few months, so far my favourite things have been to discover the wild beaches and coastal walks of the south coast and relax after with a flat white in Wellington’s numerous fantastic cafes.