Ivor Richardson Lecture in Private Law

The Ivor Richardson Lecture in Private Law honours Sir Ivor Richardson who made extraordinary contributions to New Zealand jurisprudence and legal education.

Sir Ivor Richardson was a Professor of Law at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington from 1967 to 1973, served as Dean of Te Kauhanganui Tātai Ture—the Faculty of Law from 1968 to 1971, and was Chancellor of the University from 1984 to 1986.

Sir Ivor was appointed a Judge of the High Court in 1977, and a few months later he was elevated to the Court of Appeal where he sat until his retirement in 2002.

With the support of the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation, MinterEllisonRuddWatts and Judges of the Court of Appeal, the Faculty of Law have established the Sir Ivor Richardson Lecture in Private Law.

Next lecture

Speaker: Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart

Date: 21 May 2026

Location: RHLT2 Rutherford House, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
33 Bunny Street, Pipitea, Wellington 6011

Time: 5.30 – 6.30 pm  Reception to follow at the Mezzanine Level of Rutherford House.

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Lecture details

Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart

The Sir Ivor Richardson Lecture in Private Law will be delivered by Professor Chen-Wishart, Provost’s Professor at the National University of Singapore.

In this lecture titled The Universal Purposes, Structure, and Values of Contract Law, Professor Chen-Wishart will explore how contract law supports and regulates the practice of contract-making, thereby shaping the core dimensions of human life—our freedom, our welfare, and our sense of fairness and community. Contract law reveals the architecture of human cooperation and coordination—how we've learned to trust strangers, coordinate complex activities, and built a global civilization. To understand contract law means, in a profound sense, to understand what makes us human.

Mindy Chen-Wishart is Provost’s Professor at the National University of Singapore and was Dean of the Oxford Law Faculty until 2023. She is an editor of Chitty on Contracts (36th ed), the Studies in the Contract Laws of Asia series, and the Elgar Handbook on the Philosophy of Contract Law. Her Contract Law (7th ed) is translated into Chinese. She has lectured worldwide and, in 2024, received an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Otago and a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 17th Annual International Conference on Contracts.

Past Sir Ivor Richardson Lecture in Private Law speakers: