Petra Butler
Qualifications
LLM Well, Dr Jur Gött
Profile
Petra specialises in domestic and international human rights, public and private comparative law, and private international law with an emphasis on international commercial contracts. In addition, she teaches and consults on the law of unjust enrichment. She has published extensively in those areas, including together with Andrew Butler, The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990: a commentary (Lexis Nexis, 2015) and together with the late Professor Peter Schlechtriem, UN Law on International Sales (forthcoming).
Petra is a graduate of the University of Göttingen and was a clerk at the South African Constitutional Court. Before joining Victoria University of Wellington, she worked for the Ministry of Justice’s Bill of Rights/Human Rights Team. She was a member of the National Advisory Council to the Human Rights Commission for the National Plan of Action for Human Rights. In 2004 she was the Holgate Fellow, Grey College, Durham University, in 2008 she held a Senior Fellowship at the University of Melbourne and in 2015 she was the Scholar in Residence at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in London.
Petra is New Zealand’s CLOUT correspondent for the CISG and the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts. Petra has held visiting appointments at the Chinese University of Political Science and Law (Beijing), the University of Melbourne, the University of Adelaide, Bucerius Law School (Hamburg), Universidad de Navarra (Pamplona), and Northwestern University Law School (Chicago). She also has been involved in various roles in the Vis Moot for over 10 years.
Petra is a German fully qualified lawyer and a NZ qualified barrister. She regularly advises Government departments and the profession on issues in the areas of her research and teaching interests.
Areas of supervision
- Comparative Law (public and private)
- Human Rights (domestic and international)
- Private International Law
- CISG
- Unjust Enrichment
- International Commercial Contracts.
Current research
Petra currently focuses in particular on the synergy between business and human rights, especially how private law can facilitate human rights compliance.
Petra Butler and Caroline Morris (eds) Small States in a Legal World (Springer, 2017).
Petra Butler “Conflict of Laws” in Prof Dr Larry A DiMatteo, Prof Dr André Janssen, Prof Dr Ulrich Magnus and Prof Dr Reiner Schulze (eds) International Sales Law: Contract, Principles & Practice. See flyer or visit the publisher website.
Lawyers as writers
NGO and project affiliations
Institute of Small and Micro States
Conferences
Integration and International Dispute Resolution in Small States Conference 2016
International Financial Services and Small States Conference 2017
Environmental Dispute Resolution and Small States Conference 2018
Small States, International Law and the Realisation of Rights Conference 2019
The World of Small States publication series
Events and podcasts
Bilateral Arbitration Treaty Regime
- Video
- Gary Born’s Draft Model
- Gary Born’s Explanatory Note
- Access to Justice article
- Panel Discussion Bilateral Arbitration Treaty
Current Developments in the Unification of International Private Law and Private International Law
with Holger Jacobs, Wednesday 9 August 2017. Flyer and Video
The Rainbow Warrior—a game changer?
A 30 year retrospective. More Info.
New Thinking on Sustainability
CISG Advisory Council Meeting 2012
CISG Advisory Council Meeting 2012
New Zealand Law Foundation International Dispute Resolution Fellowship Lectures
(links lead to video or audio)
- 2016/2017 Fellow: Robert Volterra—International Dispute Resolution in Small States
- 2015 Fellow: Adriana Braghetta—Dealing with businesses and lawyers in other parts of the world
- 2014 Fellow: Professor Thomas Stipanowich—International Mediation and Conflict Management: Near a Tipping Point?—images
- 2013 Fellow: Professor Catherine Rogers—Procedural Arrangements as a Window into the Soul of International Arbitration Regimes: Arbitrator Selection, Transparency and Stakeholder Interests
- 2012 Fellow: Lucy Reed—Zealand International Arbitration and Trade; in addition Dr Nils Schmidt Ahrendts—The Expert Witness in the Arbitral Process and Professor Vladimir Pavic—Bribery in Arbitration