Rate My Professor Louise Delany

Louise Delany is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Otago's Wellington campus, a role she has held since 2009 through part-time fixed-term contracts. With qualifications including a BA (Hons) in anthropology, history, and politics (1973), LLB (1991), and LLM with first-class honours specializing in international law (1995), all from Victoria University of Wellington, Delany has dedicated most of her career to the health sector. She began as a Policy Analyst at the New Zealand Department of Health (1980-1992), advanced to Legal/Senior Legal Researcher at the New Zealand Law Commission (1993-1996), Rules Team Lawyer at the Land Transport Safety Authority (1996-2000), Senior Legal Advisor at the Ministry of Justice (2000-2001), and Principal/Senior Analyst at the Ministry of Health (2001-2014). During her time at the Ministry of Health, she played a major role in developing policy and legislation such as the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990, Public Health Bill, and Radiation Safety Bill, with emphases on public health and mental health.

Delany's academic interests center on public health law and global health law. Her research addresses the law and ethics of communicable disease control, pandemics and emergencies, noncommunicable diseases linked to tobacco and alcohol—which carry international dimensions—as well as the health and equity implications of tax law since 2018, and legal responses to COVID-19 (2020-2021). She authored Covid and the Law in Aotearoa New Zealand (Thomson Reuters, 2021) and contributed four chapters on public health law to Health Law in New Zealand (Thomson Reuters, 2015). Selected peer-reviewed articles include "International trade and investment law: a new framework for public health and the common good" (BMC Public Health, 2018; with L. Signal and G. Thomson), "Key design features of a new smokefree law to help achieve the Smokefree Aotearoa New Zealand 2025 goal" (New Zealand Medical Journal, 2016; with G. Thomson, N. Wilson, R. Edwards), and "Covid-19: A Planetary Disease" (Peace Magazine, 2020). Delany has taught public health law at Otago for over ten years and developed a global health law course in 2015. Her contributions extend to leadership positions, including Chair of Tax Justice Aotearoa New Zealand (2018-2021) and President of the New Zealand Public Health Association (2016-2017). Awards include the New Zealand Health Research Council Foxley Fellowship (2007), WHO Fellowship (2003), and Chris Highfield Memorial Prize in Public Law (1989).