International Research Fellowship winner announced

Sue Barker Charities Law is delighted to announce that its director, Sue Barker, has been awarded the prestigious 2019 New Zealand Law Foundation International Research Fellowship Te Karahipi Rangahau ā Taiao, New Zealand’s premier legal research award: https://www.lawfoundation.org.nz/?p=10762&fbclid=IwAR3aQx3bOdRd9cSIp7Dn88dtRePLsiaHCSG3DDrAzMyp8JKsqCkcOe1IO2g.

The Fellowship will allow Ms Barker to undertake research into the question: what does a world-leading framework of charities law look like?, and then to feed this information into the government’s current process of reviewing the Charities Act 2005, to assist with the development of law reform in this important area.

“The Fellowship is a tremendous honour, and it particularly means a lot to me because it says that the charitable sector matters, and that it is worth taking the time to try to get the legal framework right”, said Sue.

The Fellowship will enable Sue to take a sabbatical from legal practice for a year, to research the charities law frameworks of jurisdictions comparable to New Zealand, as well as to critically examine how the current regime is working in New Zealand.

“I will be reviewing all of the 363 submissions that have so far been made to the team at the Department of Internal Affairs tasked with reviewing the Charities Act, but I would encourage anyone who has not yet made a submission or who has additional points they would like to make to please get in touch. The review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to try to get the best framework of charities law for New Zealand that we can”, said Sue.

Sue can be contacted at susan.barker@charitieslaw.co. Her report is due by March 2021.

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