Professor Mark Hickford, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Law Alumni Welcome
Professor Mark Hickford, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Law welcomes our alumni to 2021.
Kia ora koutou katoa,
This is the first Alumni Newsletter for 2021, and although it has been a challenging start to the year, we have managed to prevail successfully supporting one another and our students to get through the COVID-19 restrictions and return to teaching in-person for what we hope will be the remainder of 2021.
This year has begun with some significant achievements: Professor David McLauchlan has reached his 50-year milestone at the Law School, and Professor Nicole Moreham delivered her inaugural lecture on what the development of the tort of privacy tells us about the common law, and the way it shapes and responds to changing societal values.
Some of our academics have had their ambitious research acknowledged at an international level. Dr Bjørn-Oliver Magsig and Dr Ruby Moynihan were brought on as international experts to China's new Wuhan University Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies, International Water Law Academy. And Professor Petra Butler is leading a project titled “Indigenous Solutions: Enabling Cultural, Religious and Legal Approaches” to prevent and redress domestic and family violence in Samoa. It aims to establish a baseline or a point of reference that will inform and guide the field work through research into Samoan indigenous knowledge, scholarship and a literature review to bring forth cultural, religious and legal approaches and solutions to domestic and family violence in Samoa.
Following on from the successes thus far, I am also proud to acknowledge the achievements some of our students have had. Lottie Thompson, Jono Sylvester, and Taran Molloy, won the 19th Annual Hong Kong Red Cross International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot Court Competition for the Asia-Pacific Region. Taran was awarded the title of best individual mooter of the competition. This is the third time in a decade that our law school has won this mooting competition, testifying to the quality of our school’s students.
And finally, Daniel Wong (Class of 2002), co-founder and director of Flacks & Wong, a specialist corporate law firm, recently announced Seb Ellice, current LLB(Hons) student, as the recipient of the Flacks & Wong Prize for Company Law for 2020. The award recognises, and encourages, excellence in company law.
I wish you all the very best for the year ahead.
Arohanui,
Professor Mark Hickford, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Law