Claire Baylis
Claire’s novel and critical thesis explored the experience and perspectives of jurors in our criminal justice system, with a focus on sexual violence cases.
PhD awarded 2021 - Doctoral Dean's List
Claire is a fiction writer and law researcher based in Rotorua. In 2021, alongside the award of her PhD, she was included in the University's coveted Doctoral Dean's List: 'a formal record and public acknowledgement of those doctoral graduates whose theses have been judged by their examiners to be of exceptional quality and whose work makes an outstanding contribution to their field of research.'
Her debut novel, Dice (Allen & Unwin, 2023) was her PhD creative project. In 2024, Dice won the Ngaio Marsh Best First Novel Award, and was a finalist for the Ngaio Marsh Best Novel Award, the Australian Ned Kelly Best International Fiction Award and the Aotearoa | New Zealand Booksellers' Choice Award.
Claire's fiction has been published in Sport, Landfall, Turbine | Kapohau, Takahē, and on the Radio New Zealand National programme. She was awarded Michael King Writers Centre Residencies in 2022 and 2026, a Creative New Zealand grant in 2024, and an IOWŌ Ōtaki Storytellers' Residency in 2026. With initial development funding from NZ on Air, Claire is currently working with Tim Balme and Katie Wolfe (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) on a TV adaptation of Dice.
Claire grew up in the North East of London, before emigrating to New Zealand where she completed an LLB (Hons) and an LLM at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. She was a law academic at the University for 12 years and was Deputy Director of the New Zealand Institute for Conflict Resolution.
After leaving academia, Claire worked for new Zealand's leading jury researchers—Professor Yvette Tinsley and Dr Warren Young—on a Trans-Tasman Jury Study. For the critical component of her PhD Claire analysed some of the sexual violence cases from the Jury Study and this work is referred to by the New Zealand Judges' Bench Book. Claire is currently a member of the judgement writing faculty for Te Kura Kaiwhakawā |the New Zealand Institute of Judicial Studies. Her legal writing has appeared in New Zealand and overseas.
Claire writes: 'One of the exciting things about the Jury Research Project is that it is so rare in any country for researchers to be allowed to speak to actual jurors about real cases. Being both a researcher and interviewer on the project, gave me a unique insight into the issues jurors face in their role in the criminal justice system, particularly in sexual violence cases. I was fascinated by jurors' differing perspectives and how they worked to reach their decisions.
'My critical thesis drew on real jurors' voices to investigate the use of the story model of jury decision-making, heuristic processing and the influence of rape mythology in sexual violence cases. The novel is narrated from the jurors' perspectives in a fictional case, which raises issues of consent, "date-rape", the use of social media and the Legal System's response. By writing from a variety of perspectives the novel also examines concepts of truth, bias and subjectivity.'
Read more:
Read Damien Wilkin's Dice launch speech
'Dice / Shaping Juror Narratives In Sexual Violence Cases: The Influence Of Rape Myths And Misconceptions' (Claire Baylis' PhD thesis critical component, available via Open Access Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Welllington)
'I think she's learnt her lesson: Juror Use of Cultural Misconceptions in Sexual Violence Trials (Victoria University of Wellington Law Review article by Yvette Tinsley, Claire Baylis and Warren Young, 2021 and updated 2022)
Listen to Claire discussing Dice and her jury research (Lawyers Weekly podcast, 21 July 23)
'Stumbling' (Turbine |Kapohau 2016)
'The Right Thing' (RNZ Audio August 2016)
'Learning Chess' (Sport 31 2003)
'Time lapse' (Sport 22 1999)