Life at the Faculty—a busy start to the year
We began the year with a very special highlight—the publication of three significant new books by some of our longest-standing colleagues.
Professor David McLauchlan—Teaching Contract: My way
Professor David McLauchlan delivered his final lecture in 2024, marking the end of an extraordinary career teaching Contract and Commercial Law at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington for over 50 years.
He leaves behind an impressive legacy in terms of both his scholarship and his impact on generations of students, but he is not done yet. Far from retiring quietly, this ‘giant of contract law’ has since turned his focus to completing his latest book, Teaching Contract: My Way, and despite a busy writing schedule, also found the time to deliver the much-anticipated Ivor Richardson lecture, ‘A Uniform Approach to Contract Formation and Interpretation’.
In this lecture, Professor McLauchlan argued that the Supreme Court’s decision in Bathurst Resources Ltd v L&M Coal Holdings Ltd [2021] had, in effect, unified the principles governing contract formation and interpretation in New Zealand. While this marks a shift from approaches taken in some other common law jurisdictions, Professor McLauchlan defended the development, noting that it enhances transparency, coherence, and alignment with leading international practice. You can view the lecture below.
In February, the Faculty—together with Thomson Reuters New Zealand—was delighted to host the launch of Teaching Contract: My Way (Volume 1). In this book, Professor McLauchlan brings contract law to life through a series of conversations between a professor and a hypothetical student, making complex legal principles both practical and engaging.
This new work is set to become an invaluable resource for students, academics, and practitioners alike—whether they’re learning the foundations of contract law or wanting new perspectives on core principles. The aim is to assist the development of analytical, critical, and other lawyering skills to equip students for their future careers in the law while at the same time ensuring that they have a firm grounding in the core principles.
As the Honourable Sir Stephen Kós aptly put it in the foreword, “What is magnificent about this idea is that it combines for posterity both David’s talents: here is not just profound scholarship, but also his method of teaching. This work’s influence on a generation of teachers of law should be profound. Unlike journal articles or textbook chapters, these chapters draw you in inexorably, so you become part of the conversation between professor and student. As would be expected, they are warm, wise, disciplined and depth-finding.”
Volume 2 has been completed and is due to be published later in the year.
One Beehive, two legends
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The Faculty of Law was honoured to co-host the launch of two highly anticipated books, The Futures of Democracy, Law and Government: Contributions to a Conference in Honour of Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Without Fear or Favour: A Life in Law, the memoir of Sir Kenneth Keith.
The event, held at the Beehive in March, was proudly supported by the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation and officiated by Rt Hon Dame Helen Winkelmann, Chief Justice of New Zealand. Attendees included Faculty, the legal profession, members of parliament and former prime ministers, diplomats, and family and friends who were there to honour the lifelong contributions of two legends of the legal profession.
Rt Hon Dame Helen Winkelmann paid tribute to their legal scholarship and commitment to public service, both in Aotearoa New Zealand and on the international stage, in a moving speech.
“The two men who are the inspiration for, or author of, these books, Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Sir Ken Keith, have had careers of great significance. Their achievements reach back more than 60 years, across a broad range of New Zealand’s public life and internationally,” she said.
Professor Geoff McLay, Dean of the Faculty of Law, said, “This was a lovely evening celebration—not just these books but two extraordinary colleagues who are lifelong friends and have given so much to the world, New Zealand, and our law school community.”