In this Inaugural Professorial Lecture, Professor Jacinta Ruru anchors her research journey within this Māori proverb to help bring alive the endurance and 'foreverness' of the Māori world in Aotearoa. Professor Ruru shares the ways in which she has sought to contribute towards challenging the law to more respectfully recognise and embrace Indigenous peoples’ authority, laws, values, rights and responsibilities to own, govern and manage land and water. 12 September 2016
The Faculty of Law presents this public lecture by Professor Graham Virgo, 2016 NZ Law Foundation Distinguished Visiting Fellow, 2016 FW Guest Memorial Lecturer. In 1516 Sir Thomas More published 'Utopia', which identifies an attractive vision of law and society. As Lord Chancellor, More helped to develop Equity as a mechanism to secure justice which was not provided through the rigid interpretation of the Common Law. From the start, the equitable jurisdiction was founded on conscience. By tracing the historical development of conscience it is possible to identify the theoretical structure which justifies and explains the equitable jurisdiction and shows how it should develop in the future.
'My intention in this lecture is to urge critical reflection upon current US practices of targeted killing by considering, not just whether acts of targeted killing can be legally justified, but also what sort of state we are turning into when we organize the use of lethal force in this way -maintaining a list of named enemies of the state who are to be eliminated in this way.' A prolific scholar, Jeremy Waldron teaches legal and political philosophy at NYU School of Law. Until recently, he was also Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford University (All Souls College).
Colin Smith, Chairman on the Pike River Families Group Committee and the Pike River 29 Legacy Trust, talks about the Pike River disaster and asks how could this happen in this day and age? Find out why the Pike River Families have fought so hard and for so long. Colin Smith is a law graduate from the University of Otago and is a partner with the Greymouth Law Firm Hannan & Seddon.
Civil pecuniary penalties are an increasingly common feature of regulatory legislation such as the Commerce Act 1986 and the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. They have been both welcomed as a pragmatic “third way” between purely civil remedies and criminal charges and condemned as incompatible with human rights and the principles which underpin the criminal justice system. This lecture considers both sides of the debate and whether it is possible to reconcile the competing views. Presented by Jenny Cooper, who graduated from Otago in 1995 and now practices in Auckland as a commercial barrister with specialist expertise in company and securities law and fair trading and competition law.
De Carle Lecture series The Law and the Relational Self Professor Jonathan Herring, DM Wolfe-Clarendon Fellow in Law, University of Oxford and 2016 De Carle Distinguished Lecturer presents the fourth of four public lectures in the Relational Law series.
James and Jean Davis Prestige Visiting Fellow, Professor Don McRae C.C delivers a public lecture on 'The Evolution of International Law: Challenges and Prospects'. The lecture focuses on the changes that have occurred in the field of international law over the past 50 years, and the challenges that these developments pose for both the theory and practice of international law including its legitimacy.
De Carle Lecture series The Law and the Abused Self Professor Jonathan Herring, DM Wolfe-Clarendon Fellow in Law, University of Oxford and 2016 De Carle Distinguished Lecturer presents the third of four public lectures in the Relational Law series.
De Carle Lecture series The Law and the Caring Self Professor Jonathan Herring, DM Wolfe-Clarendon Fellow in Law, University of Oxford and 2016 De Carle Distinguished Lecturer presents the second of four public lectures in the Relational Law series.
De Carle Lecture series The Law and the Vulnerable Self Professor Jonathan Herring, DM Wolfe-Clarendon Fellow in Law, University of Oxford and 2016 De Carle Distinguished Lecturer presents the first of four public lectures in the Relational Law series.
What’s Magna Carta — legal icon, myth, or misconception? When was Magna Carta —1215, say the historians, the lawyers (were they to agree) might say 1297. In this talk Dr Nigel Jamieson, Faculty of Law at the University of Otago discusses what Magna Carta might mean for us today — being in Latin most modernists would shrug it off; some cynics say it means nothing much, since it’s only called the Great Charter because in 1215 they couldn’t text it down to twenty words; others say it’s not for us today because we’re far more up with the political play; and then there are those today who extol it to divert our attention away from the fact that they’re fiddling the books behind our backs. 21 July 2015
Professor Jim Allan is the Garrick Professor of Law at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland and previously belonged to the University of Otago Faculty of Law for 11 years. In this talk Professor Allan discusses four key points, what an unwritten constitution amounts to, the point of written constitutionalism and what you are being promised when offered a written constitution. Finally he explains why a written constitution has limited choice and the process of making a decision between a written and unwritten constitution. 15 July 2015
Professor Kathryn Tucker, Executive Director of The Disability Rights Legal Center, Los Angeles, discusses the rights of terminally ill patients to make choices to ensure a dying process that is consistent with their values and beliefs; these rights have been rapidly evolving in the US. Professor Tucker, a veteran of nearly every effort to protect and expand end of life choice in the US for more that two decades, will share insight on advocacy strategies, progress, challenges and predictions. She also discusses advocacy in the courthouse, the statehouse and in various policy forums. 17 March 2015
In this talk, Sabine Brels explores these questions in providing a global overview of animal law at three levels: National, European and International. What is animal law, where does it come from, and how is it evolving? Why can we say that it is progressing worldwide? What are its main strengths and weaknesses in order to protect the welfare of animals against cruelty and suffering, either legally or illegally perpetrated? She also looks at current efforts to set up a universal protection of animal welfare. Lastly, she presents the new Global Animal Law (GAL) Project, aiming to improve the law for animals all around the world. 16 March 2015
Professor Jane C. Ginsburg of the Columbia University School of Law discusses two utopian goals: universal access to knowledge, and universal authors’ rights. She also addresses the clash of utopias epitomised by the Google book-scanning programme and the legal responses it has inspired, including the recent decision by the SDNY upholding Google’s fair use defence. 23 October 2014
Trevor Shiels QC, delivers the 2014 F.W. Guest Memorial Lecture – Multiple Judgments and the New Zealand Supreme Court. 4 September 2014
The Honorable Justice Susan Glazebrook, Supreme Court of New Zealand, delivers this talk on some issues in statutory interpretation in the 21st century. Justice Glazebrook discusses a number of topics including legislation, modern statutes, the purpose of text in legislation, and interpretation. 13 August 2014
The Honorable Michael Kirby, AC CMG Australia, presents this talk on Human Rights in North Korea. He discusses a number of issues including the torture of prisoners and other violations of human rights. He also discusses the establishment of the Commission of Enquiry in May 2013 to investigate these issues. 5 August 2014
Professor Gerald Torres, Jane M.G. Foster Professor of Law at Cornell Law School delivers this talk on 'Litigating Climate Change'. Climate change cases are already being handled by the USA courts. The most prominent are the atmospheric trust cases currently being brought by youth and supported by James Hansen and other scientists. These cases are asking the courts to compel Government to take meaningful action to protect the atmosphere for current and future generations. There have also been liability suits suggested – and at least one filed – over the effects of climate change. Professor Torres discusses the range of cases being brought and suggested in the USA, focusing on the atmospheric trust litigation, and the public trust doctrine which underlies it. 30 July 2014
Guest Lecturer Mindy Chen-Wishart, a Reader in Contract Law, presents a case study of the transplant of an English doctrine into Singaporean law and explores why the Singaporean courts, while professing to follow it, have applied it to very divergent effect. She compares Western and Confucian value systems—hierarchy versus equality, the positional versus the personal, and collectivism versus individualism—and emphasises the importance of being more aware of the deeply entrenched assumptions of one's own legal system, and of those of other cultures. With the 'changing of the guard' on the world stage, from the West to the East, this is a particularly important time to engage with the Eastern perspective. 24 July 2014