Inspiring overseas visit
Dr Carwyn Jones has returned to Victoria University of Wellington’s Faculty of Law inspired by the time he’s spent overseas learning about indigenous legal education.
Dr Carwyn Jones has returned to Victoria University of Wellington’s Faculty of Law inspired by the time he’s spent overseas learning about indigenous legal education.
Being awarded the 2015 Toihuarewa Travelling Fellowship—Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Māori)—allowed Carwyn to spend four weeks travelling to places he had identified as having an interesting or innovative indigenous law programme.
Carwyn’s time was spent meeting with Faculty to talk about the work they were conducting—he sat in on some classes and also attended a tribal court hearing. He also gave a number of public talks.
“I spoke to an environmental law clinic class who were specifically interested in Māori water rights and the findings of the Waitangi Tribunal.
“There was also a real interest in the incorporation by the New Zealand legal system of tikanga Maori.”
One thing he noted during his time overseas was the different type of student experience offered by the various institutions.
“The University of New Mexico has a clinical legal programme where students are supervised by practicing lawyers but work on real cases before the tribal courts in Alberqueque.
“When these students graduate they have some clinical experience and they know what indigenous communities are really like. There is an overall deep engagement which is beneficial for Faculty and students.”
Carwyn was particularly inspired when he saw the work being undertaken by an indigenous research unit at the University of Victoria in Canada.
“The unit feeds into courses so the students are involved in research work which leads to developments in the curriculum for indigenous law courses.”
Carwyn has returned with enthusiasm for useful and practical collaboration between researchers and students at Victoria and sees opportunities to provide support for, and give direction to, student initiatives like the Wellington Community Justice Project where students gain real clinical experience.
“Also this year at the Faculty of Law, some of our students have been running discussion groups to discuss legal issues and the tikanga implications.”
“These are student initiatives developed as something that the students see will enhance their law degree and their experience at Victoria.”
Carwyn says he felt very well looked after by faculty at the different places he visited. “The legal scholars working in this field seemed pleased to have someone from a different jurisdiction and with different experiences to talk with about these issues, to engage with and to discuss different perspectives—I feel the same when we have visitors to Victoria.
“It gave me the opportunity to share some of the work we are doing at Victoria, and to bring back the overseas expertise to share with the Faculty.”