Professor Emerita Carr, a Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University alumna, members of their family, friends, and former colleagues attended the occasion.

Professor Hogg’s son, David Hogg, spoke about his father’s life, noting that his father was best known for his influential book Constitutional Law of Canada, first published in 1977 and updated almost every year until his death in 2020. “Every Canadian lawyer read it in law school,” he said.

Professor Hogg attended Nelson College with Sir Geoffrey Palmer, graduating in 1956. He earned an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1962 (and later an honorary LLD in 2006), an LLM from Harvard Law School in 1963, and a PhD from Monash University in Melbourne, in 1970.

After teaching at both Victoria and Monash Universities, Professor Hogg moved to Canada in 1970 to take up a teaching position at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, where he served as Dean from 1978 to 2003, later becoming scholar-in-residence at a major Toronto law firm.

Professor Hogg regularly returned to New Zealand to visit family and friends with his wife Fran―whom he met at Harvard―and their children, David and Anne. David believes that, despite Peter’s international career success, his New Zealand identity remained strong:” Even after contributing so much to Canada through the law, he still felt like a kiwi, deep down. And to Canadians, he sounded like one!” he said.

During his career, Professor Hogg advised Canadian Prime Ministers and Premiers, argued cases in the Canadian Supreme Court and was cited in judgments of that Court at twice the rate of any other academic.

David is most proud of the work his father did with the Council of Yukon First Nations and helping First Nations lawyer Dave Joe broker a self-government agreement between Canada and the First Nations in the Yukon. “It created a fully self-governing Indigenous region within Canada, covering a large part of the Yukon. It has been used as a model for many other similar kinds of agreements around the world,” says David.

Sir Kenneth Keith, Emeritus Professor at Te Kauhanganui Tātai Ture―Faculty of Law, and close friend of the family, believes Professor Hogg has made a huge contribution to the law not just of Canada, but also in New Zealand. “He often had seminars at the Law Commission and the Law School on recent developments in Canadian constitutional law,” he says. “At a meeting on Christmas Eve 1984, he also gave critical advice on the proposed New Zealand Bill of Rights. A mighty Totara has fallen in the forest of Tane,” says Sir Keith.

Professor Hogg’s other publications included an edition of Cases and Materials on Administrative Law, a case book on administrative law in Australia, four editions of Liability of the Crown, and eight editions of Principles of Canadian Income Tax Law.

Professor Hogg received the Companion of the Order of Canada in 2003 for services to the Law.