Dr An Hertogen

Biography

An completed her undergraduate law degree at the KU Leuven in Belgium. She also holds an LL.M from Columbia University, and a PhD from the University of Auckland. Before starting her PhD, she practised in competition law in Brussels and Auckland.

Research | Current

An is currently working on a research project on "Good Neighbourliness in International Law", funded by a Marsden Fund Fast-Start grant. The research explores the potential of “good neighbourliness” as a foundation for legal restrictions on states’ sovereign decisions in a world characterised by increasing interdependence. Obligations of good neighbourliness have developed in international environmental law to deal with the negative impact of a state’s decisions on the physical environment of another state. Yet, states’ decisions can cause a non-physical impact on another state, for example when they affect another state’s economy. International law has no clear answer on how to deal with non-physical impacts. An's research draws on the history of “good neighbourliness” in Roman law, municipal law, and international environmental law, to explore the concept’s potential as a foundation for legal restrictions on states' sovereign decisions that have a non-physical impact on other states. 

The broad theme of An's research is the exercise of regulatory jurisdiction. Her PhD thesis examined how international law should deal with situations where one state’s regulatory policies affect another state’s domestic affairs. She used climate change and macro-financial instability as case studies to assess whether international law protects states against the adverse effects of another state’s exercise of its sovereignty and whether international law creates the necessary foundations for co-operation between states on global problems.

Aside from questions as to how international law allocates regulatory jurisdiction between states, she is also interested in the substance of states' regulation of economic activity, with a particular interest in competition and consumer law.

Teaching | Current

On leave in 2019

Postgraduate supervision

An welcomes inquiries from potential research students in international law, with a particular focus on the limits of state sovereignty and the duties of sovereign states towards others in a global economy, and in consumer law issues.

Areas of expertise

International Law, with an emphasis on international economic law

Consumer law

Competition law