Guest Speaker:
Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC
Barrister, Distinguished Fellow, Faculty of Law and Centre for Public Law, Victoria University of Wellington, Global Affiliated Professor, University of Iowa, College of Law
Event Date: Wednesday 10th March 2021
Event Time: 5:30 pm-7:00 pm
Event Location:
Bell Gully
Level 21, Wellington ANZ Centre, 171 Featherston Street, Wellington, 6011.
(Please note no building access after 6pm)
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Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC
Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC was admitted as a solicitor in 1965 and to the bar in 1966 and practised in Wellington with O’Flynn and Christie before taking up a British Commonwealth Fellowship to the University of Chicago where he graduated JD cum laude in 1967. He was a law professor in the United States and New Zealand for some years before entering politics as the MP for Christchurch Central in 1979. In Parliament he held the offices of Attorney-General, Minister of Justice, Leader of the House, Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister.
On leaving politics in 1990 he was a law professor at the University of Iowa and the Victoria University of Wellington. In 1994 he became a Foundation Partner of Chen & Palmer Public Law Specialists where he remained until 2005 when he was appointed President of the Law Commission, a position he occupied until 2010. During that period he also chaired the Legislation Advisory Committee. He has appeared extensively in the superior courts including the Privy Council.
He is a member of the Her Majesty’s Privy Council, was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1991 and was made an honorary companion to the Order of Australia the same year. He was made a member of the Global 500 Roll of Honour by the United Nations Environment Programme. He holds four honorary doctorates. He was elected a member of the American Law Institute, a Member of the American Association of International Law and a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the New Zealand Law Society Rule of Law Committee.
In 2010 and 2011 he chaired the Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla Incident for the United Nations in New York that reported to the Secretary-General. For eight years he was New Zealand’s Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission. Sir Geoffrey is a Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Centre for Public Law and the Law Faculty at the Victoria University of Wellington. He has an extensive list of publications in legal periodicals that can be accessed on the Social Science Research Network.
He is also the author or co-author of twelve books, the latest of which is Reform – a Memoir published by the Victoria University Press in November 2013.
