Professor Robin Palmer

Robin Palmer is a Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Legal Studies at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Prior to that he was the Director of the Institute for Professional Legal Training (IPLT), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. He is also a practicing barrister (advocate).

His research specialisations are Clinical Legal Studies, Aspects of Medical Law, Forensic Investigation, International Corruption, and the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education and the workplace. 

As a barrister, he has represented clients in numerous high-profile cases, including as the lead specialist prosecutor of the Netcare case, where international brokers, local hospital groups and healthcare professionals were prosecuted for illegal organ trafficking, with a number of convictions resulting. 

He has also been engaged to conduct various training courses and consultancies for the UNDP, UNODC, OSI, OSISA, the Commonwealth, USAID, GIZ, DFID, EU, the IBA  and others  in diverse fields, including organ trafficking, justice reform, legal aid, constitutional development and good governance projects. In addition he was a member of the IBA Human Rights Institute’s six-person Task Team into money laundering, tax evasion, poverty and human rights from 2012 to 2013, and he was the lead consultant in the UNODC expert group meeting on private/public security cooperation in Vienna from 2009 to 2011. 

In addition, he was  the project leader of the New Zealand Law Foundation-supported project, “The Brain does not lie: An Investigation into the forensic application of EEG and allied technologies in the Criminal Justice System,” which commenced in 2016, and was completed in 2024.

He has recently (2023 to 2025)  presented papers on various aspects of the use and abuse of AI, at conferences in New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa.