PUBLIC TALK: Judging at home and abroad - some reflections

A public lecture by The Right Honourable Sir Kenneth Keith ONZ KBE QC.

In 2006, Judge Kenneth Keith became one of fifteen judges of the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

He has been a judge for 30 years, starting part-time in appeal courts in Western Samoa, the Cook Islands and Niue and later in Fiji. From 1966 to 2006 he was a member of the New Zealand Court of Appeal and the newly formed Supreme Court, as well as an occasional member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He has also sat as an international arbitrator. He was a member of the law faculty of the Victoria University of Wellington, the New Zealand Law Commission, the United Nations Secretariat and the New Zealand Department of External Affairs.

Judge Keith will address the similarities and differences in judging arising from his experience and his earlier and continuing academic interests: the parties, the judges (from about 35 different countries and the methods of selection and election), the processes the courts follow, and the law they apply. He will also address the question of what can now be said about bringing law to bear on governments and developing the rule of law nationally and internationally.