Sir Kenneth Keith returns for law seminar

International Court of Justice judge and esteemed Fulbright alumnus Sir Kenneth Keith returns to Wellington this month, where he will participate in a seminar on 21 August discussing US influence on New Zealand law.

The seminar, organised by the newly-formed Fulbright New Zealand Alumni Association in partnership with law firm Chapman Tripp, will feature a keynote address by Sir Kenneth and a panel discussion between himself and fellow Fulbright alumni in the field of law Kennedy Graham (Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand), Daniel Kalderimis (Chapman Tripp), Matthew Palmer (Crown Law Office) and Nicole Roughan (Victoria University of Wellington).

Sir Kenneth acknowledges the long historical influence of US law on the New Zealand legal system, and credits the exchange of New Zealand law students and academics to the US under the Fulbright programme as having a major ongoing effect. "While the US influence on New Zealand law and practice may be traced back to the 1840s it has become much more significant in the last 60 years, with the Fulbright programme a major factor," he says. "The influence is to be seen in legal education, law and constitutional reform, legal practice, judging and more broadly in the way we see the law and its role in our society."

Sir Kenneth received a 1964 Fulbright New Zealand Graduate Award to complete a Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has gone on to become one of New Zealand's pre-eminent international law experts, and has served as a judge in the Pacific Island nations of Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue and Fiji, on the New Zealand Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of New Zealand, and as a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. In 2006, Sir Kenneth became the first New Zealander appointed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, for a nine-year term.

ENDS

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