Date:08Dec 2016

Appointed to the New Zealand High Court last year, the Hon Justice Matthew Palmer has found judicial life more similar to academic life than any other role. Earlier this year Judge Richard Posner of the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals published a trenchant critique of both the judiciary and the academy in the United States. In this lecture Justice Palmer considers the similarities and differences between the functions and cultures of the legal academy and the judiciary in New Zealand. Like Judge Posner, but in different ways, he urges each to pay attention to the other.

The Hon Justice Matthew Palmer began his career as a Junior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington and then as an economic and financial analyst at the New Zealand Treasury. He has been Deputy Secretary for Justice (Public Law) and Deputy Solicitor-General (Public Law) as well as Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of Law at Victoria University of Wellington. He has taught law at Hong Kong University, the National University of Singapore, the University of Chicago and Yale Law School. He practised at the New Zealand bar and was appointed a Queen’s counsel. In 2015 he was appointed as a judge of the High Court of New Zealand.