An address to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs on 16 August 2010. The address provides an overview of International Whaling Commission negotiations, a proposal to cap whaling over a period of 10 years, and of an application brought by Australia in the International Court of...

An address to Whale Watch Kaikoura on 18 May 2010. The address provides an overview of a proposal before the International Whaling Commission to cap whaling over a period of 10 years and its implications for conservation and IWC productivity

An address at the International Whaling Commission’s Meeting of the Small Working Group in Florida, United States, 2 March 2010. Sir Geoffrey Palmer was the chairperson of the Small Working Group, which was set up in an attempt to produce a consensus settlement of the problems besetting the...

An address at the meeting of the International Whaling Commission, held at Madeira, Portugal, in June 2009. The address considers the International Whaling Commission’s progress as at 2009 and areas for improvement in years to come

An address at the Open Day at Frank Kitts Park to celebrate the Gentle Giants of the Ocean on 15 December 2007. The address considers Japan’s exploitation of the scientific research provision in the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling

The opening speech to the Symposium on the State of Conservation of Whales in the 21st Century, delivered at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, 12 April 2007. Sir Geoffrey Palmer was the Chair of the Symposium, which was held with a view to resolving what was at the time an impasse over...

An address delivered to a meeting of the IWC in Ulsan, Korea, 2006. The address argues against the resumption of commercial whaling, rebutting the argument that the purpose of the International Whaling Commission is to regulate whaling, and tracing the growing emphasis on environmental...

An address to the Department of Conservation seminar “Whale Tales – From Whaling to Whale Watching”, delivered in Nelson on 11 March 2005. The address traces New Zealand’s relationship with whaling and the International Whaling Commission. It discusses the implications of a resumption of...

An address to a meeting in Dunedin introducing A Constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand on 30 November 2016. The address makes the case for a written constitution in the light of concerning trends overseas, such as the rise of the “post-truth” age in Donald Trump’s United States and the...

The keynote address to the Open Source/Open Society Conference, delivered on 22 August 2016. The address introduces Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Dr Andrew Butler’s new book, A Constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand, and discusses the shortcomings of New Zealand’s unwritten constitution