Jacinta Ruru is a Professor of Law at the University of Otago. Her research has focused on exploring Indigenous peoples' legal rights to own, manage and govern land and water including national parks and minerals in Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, United States, Australia and the Scandinavia countries.
She has led, or co-led, several national and international research projects including on the Common Law Doctrine of Discovery, Indigenous peoples’ rights to freshwater and multidisciplinary understandings of landscapes and writes for several legal publishers including Adams’ Land Transfer and edit the Brookers Maori Legislation Handbook.