Expertise Areas

Public International Law; International Environmental Law; Law of the Sea; International Humanitarian Law; Protection of Antarctic Environment; Public Policy; International Law and Australian Institution; Marine and Coastal Law

Brief Bio

Professor of International Law at ANU College of Law, Prof. Donald R Rothwell is one of Australia’s leading experts in International Law with specific focus on the law of the sea; law of the polar regions, use of force and implementation of international law within Australia. He is the author of 28 books and over 200 book chapters and articles including, with Tim Stephens, the influential and respected academic text, The International Law of the Sea 3rd ed, IN PRESS). His most recent work is Islands and International Law (Hart: 2022).

The 3rd edition of International Law in Australia (2017) co-edited with Associate Professor Emily Crawford, revives a publication that last appeared in 1984 and brings together some of Australia's most eminent international law jurists, practitioners and scholars to assess contemporary developments for Australia and international law.

Major career works include The Polar Regions and the Development of International Law (CUP, 1996), and International Law: Cases and Materials with Australian Perspectives 3rd (CUP: 2018) with Kaye, Akhtarkhavari, Davis and Saunders.

He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Brill Research Perspectives in Law of the Sea. From 2012-2018 he was Rapporteur of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on ‘Baselines under the International Law of the Sea’. He has taught a range of courses including Law of the Sea, International Dispute Resolution, International Law and Use of Armed Force, International Humanitarian Law, Military Operations Law, and Public International Law.

Prof. Donald was previously Challis Professor of International Law and Director of the Sydney Centre for International and Global Law, University of Sydney (2004-2006), where he had taught since 1988. He has acted as a consultant or been a member of expert groups for UNEP, UNDP, IUCN, the Australian Government, and acted as advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

In 2012 Rothwell was appointed an inaugural ANU Public Policy Fellow, and in 2015 elected as Fellow to the Australian Academy of Law. He is a regular media commentator on international law issues and has written over 100 opinion comments, including for all of the major daily newspapers in Australia and ABC Online ‘The Drum. His media interviews have included ABC TV 7.30, ABC Radio ‘AM’ and ‘PM’, ABC Radio National ‘Breakfast’, ABC News 24, Al Jazerra (TV), BBC, and the Voice of America.

Prof. Donald Rothwell is one of Australia’s leading experts in International law with specific focus on the law of the sea; law of the polar regions, use of force and implementation of international law within Australia.

He is the author of 27 books and over 200 book chapters and articles including, with Tim Stephens, the influential and respected academic text, The International Law of the Sea (2nd ed; 2016).

Prof. Donald regularly extends the reach of his extensive expertise on international law through the media, where he is acclaimed as an independent and objective interpreter of international law as it relates to current affairs. These have included highly emotional and divisive issues such as the Bali Nine execution and the entry of Australia into the war against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Publications (Weblink only), if any:

• https://law.anu.edu.au/about/our-people/donald-rothwell