Oliver is a general international lawyer with a special interest in arbitration: inter-State, investor-State, and commercial. He joined the LSE Law School as an Assistant Professor in January 2023. He has been Assistant General Editor of the ICSID Reports since 2018.
Oliver researches the development of international law by investment tribunals. His latest articles seek to reconcile investment arbitration with the energy transition by integrating rules from international environmental law. His PhD thesis at the University of Cambridge, in progress, is titled ‘A Reasonably Well Organized Modern State’: Investment Treaty Arbitration and the Reformation of Economic Sovereignty in Customary International Law.
Before arriving at the LSE, Oliver clerked for an appellate judge, practised commercial litigation, and held several research, teaching, and editorial roles. Recently, he was co-Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge International Law Journal and a Research Associate with the PluriCourts Centre of Excellence at the University of Oslo. He holds a BA in Politics and an LLB with Honours from the University of Otago, where he returned as visiting lecturer, and an LLM in International Law (First Class) from Cambridge. As a doctoral student, he taught graduate workshops in international investment law and coached Cambridge’s team for the Jessup Moot.
Oliver was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 2017.