GC REAIM Expert
Rain Liivoja is a Professor and Deputy Dean (Research) at the University of Queensland Law School, where he leads the Law and the Future of War research group. Rain is also a Senior Fellow with the Lieber Institute for Law and Land Warfare at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He holds the title of Adjunct Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki, where he is affiliated with the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights.
Rain’s research focuses on the legal challenges associated with military applications of science and technology. He has published and consulted on general international law, international humanitarian law and human rights law. He is the author of Criminal Jurisdiction over Armed Forces Abroad (Cambridge University Press 2017) and a co-editor of four books, most recently Autonomous Cyber Capabilities under International Law (NATO CCDCOE 2021). He is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies.
Rain has a long involvement with the Red Cross movement, especially in the dissemination of international humanitarian law. He is currently Deputy Chair of the Queensland Divisional Advisory Board of the Australian Red Cross. In 2022–2023, he was a Visiting Legal Fellow at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He has served on governmental and academic delegations to multilateral meetings on humanitarian law and arms control, including the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems.
