University of Canterbury School of Law - 130th Anniversary Reunion

Holiday Inn
Christchurch

Roy Sharp, Vice Chancellor, Professor Scott Davidson, Pro-Vice Chancellor, School of Law, distinguished guests.

There are only two groups that I remain nervous of addressing – and they are both peer groups: the Labour Caucus and Canterbury lawyers. Even 5 hours of grilling in front of a UN Committee pales into insignificance over this evening.

This was not the case 14 years ago when a similar crowd gathered to celebrate the new law school building at Canterbury University. Unfortunately there was a bit of a gap between the formalities of the opening and the dinner that followed.

I approached the chair of proceedings during the dinner to complain that not a single woman had spoken at the opening, despite the fact that the school had produced some high profile women – including Ruth Richardson, who was then the Minister of Finance – and it was the centenary of women's suffrage as well. He said that I had been invited to speak to the NZ Law Teachers Conference in a couple of months and that apparently was that.

I remember the guest speaker that night, but won't name names. His reference to women in his speech identified one of the benefits of increasing numbers of women taking law in his early days, as having someone to dance with at the annual law students' ball.

This encouraged me to use my speech a couple of months later into an overview of women in the teaching of law in New Zealand – and given that I am now Minister of Women's Affairs I thought it would be a good place to start. It actually is a bit hard to do the numbers today; I have a done a rough trawl through the websites, some which are easier than others to navigate.

I am comparing current estimates (minus Victoria which was a nightmare to work out) with the stats I used in 1993.

1 woman dean out of 5 law schools – None today
2 women out of 15 professors – 3 out of 29
1 woman out of 9 Associate professors – 8 out of 19
25 women out of 91 lecturers (including senior lecturers) – 37 out of 70

So it is only at that final level where we finally see equal numbers coming through. So there is a wee way to go before we see women joining their male counterparts in equal numbers in the more senior ranks of our Universities, but it will happen over time.

In my address I referred to the Female Law Practitioners Act 1896, which had to be passed to allow Ethel Benjamin to enter the practice of law. Hot on the heels of the women's suffrage vote, one of the honourable members of Parliament thought in all probability that if the Bill were passed it would have the effect of inducing a number of females to quite unsex themselves and to neglect the ordinary female duties. He believed there would soon be a great mass of Portias who would prove a hindrance to the colony and lead to an enormous quantity of unnecessary litigation. The honour of the first NZ female law graduate of course resides with Otago, but I wanted to re-quote that extract from Hansard.

I then talked about how few women were judges or held other senior positions in the law – I only had three women law teachers during the time that I was at the Law School; but they were each exceptional teachers and memorable for a number of reasons.

Isobel Matson, who was Canterbury's first woman LLB graduate; Jane Chart who spearheaded community mediation in New Zealand and Julie Maxton, who became Auckland's first woman Dean and only the second woman professor in New Zealand's history – Judith Mayhew holds first place for that.

I ended my comments that evening by saying that although I had been harsh about the less than welcoming arms extended to women in so many aspects of the law, I had never regretted my study of it. I thanked John Burrows for teaching me the basics of statutory interpretation, Andrew Alston for encouraging me to take up mooting and Jeremy Finn for teaching me how to look like I was awake during long Parliamentary debates.

There are those who have passed on as well and I want to say that Gerry Orchard was an outstanding teacher – he made criminal law come alive, warning his students that if they hadn't started studying for the exams the day before, it was unlikely they would do very well. It is amazing the number of times that a topical discussion brings back memories of the rules we learned so many years ago – the Louise Nicholas case sparked a debate about a jury's right to know about other convictions – bringing back memories of the similar fact evidence case that involved a series of brides drowning in the bath – I even remembered the case was R v Smith.

To use the modern language of NCEA, although administrative law was a 'not achieved' in terms of my degree, I owe a considerable debt to John Caldwell for his painstaking efforts on a subject which stood me in very good regard. As anyone who studied Admin will know, judicial review cases are often focussed on decisions of the Minister of Immigration and although I was challenged on several occasions it was rare that a decision of mine was overturned and that was because I was very alert to the rules of natural justice.

I will tell you a story about a case where I did intervene – to deny a business visa to an applicant on the basis that the business (one that involved psychic powers) was based on deriving an income from the gullibility of New Zealanders – I didn't think that was an appropriate business activity.

I did laugh with one of my private secretaries and say, that if she was any good, she would know I was going to do this. Anyway, she had a good lawyer and I had to back down. But I did change the rules about the nature of the business that would sustain an application for a visa.

One thing that makes me feel really proud about my law school is how well regarded my teachers are in terms of their particular expertise and in this regard can I mention Philip Joseph, who is considered quite rightly to be a leading expert on constitutional and administrative law; and I want to add John Hughes, whose knowledge and experience on labour relations and on social welfare law, coupled with a compassionate heart, has led him to assist individuals who could not otherwise represent themselves against the power of the state – it makes me proud to be a Canterbury graduate.

There are only three other teachers of mine that are still on the faculty; and they are Stephen Todd, (who I think I had for one term), David Rowe (who was the funniest lecturer I had) and last, but not least, David Round – who earned himself a headline in the 2005 election along the lines of Dalziel set to teach former lecturer a lesson. It is kind of comforting to know that there is one thing that will never change at your alma mater and in Canterbury's case that is David Round.

In fact when I looked at the original requirements of the LLB on the Law School website, I discovered that an aspiring barrister was required to sit what was described as a "general knowledge'' examination. This included translations from set Latin and Greek authors and grammatical, historical and geographical questions based on the passages translated; the first four books of Euclid; Algebra up to quadratic equations; and the etymology of the English language and English Composition. (Some candidates might have found a crumb of comfort in being allowed to substitute French or German for Greek, but Latin remained compulsory.) The history paper covered English history, including English Constitutional History, and the history of Europe, Greece and Rome. Blackstone's Commentaries was a set text. I suddenly realised that David Round is probably the only living person who could qualify under those rules to practise law today.

When I read the 130 year history of the Canterbury LLB on the website, I realised how fortunate we all have been to be part of an incredible tradition, which has included the first Maori graduate, Sir Apirana Ngata, many members of the judiciary, including several High Court and Court of Appeal Judges, the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Young, and now one of the founding members of the new Supreme Court of New Zealand, Justice Tipping. A number of members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers over the years have had an LLB from this law school – including as I mentioned before a Minister of Finance.

The people who have and who currently teach here not only contribute to the education of their students, they provide commentary on matters of public importance – For example Duncan Webb on legal ethics and Ursula Cheer on media law.

Celebrating 130 years of the LLB at Canterbury enables each one of us to reflect on those that taught us, mentored us and influenced us, shaping our lives and the contribution we make in the myriad of fields that our LLB takes us. And it is true that those fields are many and varied. I remember John Burrows speaking at an evening designed to allow students to think of the range of opportunities that lay ahead of us – he said that one student had become funeral director. He couldn't quite see the connection, but he thought that at least it gave him something to think about while he was nailing down the lid.

I wanted to end with reference to John Burrows, because he continues to contribute beyond his leaving Canterbury, devoting his time now to the Law Commission, which has been reinvigorated with his arrival, coupled with the enthusiastic chairmanship of Sir Geoffrey Palmer. The level of his contribution cannot be measured in his years of service – the quality of his contribution lives on in the lives of his students and his colleagues.

Enjoy the weekend – it is a celebration. For my part I am glad this bit is over.