Dr Justin Rose

Justin Rose specialises in Pacific Islands law and governance and is the principal of Justin Rose Consulting. He has developed, reviewed, administered and drafted policy and legislation on coastal and offshore fisheries, ocean management and marine spatial planning, climate change mitigation and adaptation, disaster risk management, conservation areas, biosecurity, forestry, waste and chemicals, environmental impact assessment and treaty implementation.

Justin spent five years from 1993 in Commonwealth and Queensland environment agencies assisting policy and legislative development before moving to the Pacific as an Australian Volunteer in 1998. Since then he has worked for or with governments across the region, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), the Pacific Community (SPC), the University of the South Pacific (USP) and civil society organisations including Te Puna Vai Mārama, IUCN Oceania, the Nature Conservancy and the Waitt Institute.

Justin was the inaugural Coordinator of USP’s Environmental Law Program, established in 2010, where he taught International Environmental Law, Law of the Sea, Pacific Islands Environmental Law, Legal Research and Legal Drafting. He has published on international and Pacific Island environmental law from 2006.

In 2019, as Adjunct A/Professor of Law at USP, Justin offered his online International Environmental Law class the mentored exercise that began the civil society campaign for an International Court of Justice advisory opinion on climate change. The Court delivered its opinion on the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change in July 2025.

Qualifications

• PhD in Law, Macquarie University (2007): dissertation on Pacific Island natural resource management and marine conservation.

• Bachelor of Laws (Honours), Australian National University (1993)

• Bachelor of Arts, Australian National University (1991)