A Very Special Man book launch

I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Māori, Cook Island Māori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.   Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the morning (Sign)

I then specifically greet you: Rex Williams, Chancellor of the University of Canterbury and Dr Rod Carr, Vice-Chancellor; Associate Professor Richard Scragg, Dean and Head of the School of Law and co-editor of A Very Special Man; Maree Williamson and members of the Williamson family; Rt Hon Sir Thomas Eichelbaum, former Chief Justice and Hon Justice Lowell Goddard, Chair of the Independent Police Conduct Authority and fellow members of the judiciary such as Judge Patricia Costigan and Associatea Judge Robert Osborne; Chris Lange, who is representing Crown Solicitor Brent Stanaway, and other members of the Raymond Donnelly law firm; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank you for inviting my wife Susan and me to the launch of A Very Special Man: The Neil Williamson Memorial Essays here at the University of Canterbury. While I have been asked to officially launch this handsome new publication, and will do so presently, I would like to make some comment about the late Neil Williamson and the role of publications such as this.

Just on a year ago, Brent Stanaway, as a trustee of the Neil Williamson Memorial Trust, wrote to me asking whether I would be prepared to write a foreword to a collection of the lectures given in his honour and previously published in the Canterbury Law Review.  

I quickly responded in the affirmative and for a number of reasons.  The first is a personal connection.  Given that the Judge and I worked in different courts and in different and distant cities, there would not have naturally been any overlap between our careers.

However, in the early 1990s, the heads of our respective courts, gave us a joint task, to collate and co-edit a first ever Bench Book for use in jury trials by Judges of both the High Court and the District Court.   Undertaking that task saw us working together closely over several months.  As I noted in the foreword to this book, the experience left me with an enduring impression of Neil as a fine lawyer, an able judge and a charming companion whose grasp of principle was both utterly sound and seemingly effortless.   This combination of qualities has also been outlined by the esteemed authors whose contributions are included in this volume and the appropriate choice of title: A Very Special Man.

The reference to “principle” brings me to my second point.  Justice Williamson’s decisions were always marked by clarity of reasoning that cut through the thickets of legalese to reach the heart of the matter before him.  For example, his decision on 19 August 1986 in an appeal against conviction brought by a Maori named Te Weehi from Motunau Beach south of Cheviot in North Canterbury, just a year after his appointment to the High Court, confirmed Māori fishing rights envisaged by the Fisheries Act and provided a landmark decision.  This was to be followed by decisions by the Court of Appeal in following years and decisions of the Waitangi Tribunal.  Te Weehi has come to be regarded as the beginning of a profound change in our country’s understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi and of customary rights.

Likewise, his decision in a 1992 case which became called Hamlin v Invercargill City Council set a new standard for the duty of care for local authorities towards home owners in relation to building inspections.  An Invercargill man had engaged builders to make him a house in the northern Invercargill suburb of Waikiwi.  This they did inclusive of defective foundations which were however inspected and passed by the Invercargill City Council building inspectorate.  That was sufficient to attract tortious liability for negligence. The position taken by Justice Williamson, departed from the standard applied in Britain, but was confirmed by the Court of Appeal and by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council just two days before his untimely death in February 1996.

While the committee’s decision specifically addressed the Court of Appeal’s conscious decision to depart from English case law, it was, of course, a ringing endorsement of the perceptive reasoning of the Judge at first instance.  Writing for a panel that included my predecessor Sir Michael Hardie Boys, Lord Lloyd of Berwick wrote: “The ability of the common law to adapt itself to the differing circumstances of the countries in which it has taken root, is not a weakness, but one of its greatest strengths. Were it not so, the common law would not have flourished as it has, with all the common law countries learning from each other.” 

Justice Williamson’s decisions in Te Weehi, and Hamlin were about more than just upholding precedent or a slavish acceptance of English case law.  In keeping with Justice Williamson’s own character, it was about fairness, justice and, most importantly, ensuring “good law for New Zealand”.

That then brings me to my final point.  The lectures brought together in this book have all been given some of New Zealand’s finest legal minds.  Each lecture has probed an aspect of New Zealand’s law and constitutionial arrangements or aspects of wider jurisprudence. Those issues have included judicial independence, consistency in sentencing offenders, legal professional ethics, freedom of the news media, the establishment of the International Criminal Court and the role of the Office of Governor-General.

Public lectures, as pivotal events, have a role in promoting discussion.  However, even when broadcast, the audience is inherently limited and the thoughts and reflection of others, often fleeting.  It is through publication in journals such as the Canterbury Law Review and The New  Zealand Law Review that the ideas expressed gain a much wider audience, allowing the community, both legal and otherwise, to consider and discuss the arguments they contain.

This is work, of which I have some knowledge as a one-time business manager of the 1968 edition of Auckland University Law Review, and is about more than a mere cataloguing of legal decisions.  It plays a fundamental role in the point which Lord Lloyd made in Hamlin about the growth and development of a distinctive New Zealand legal identity.

While praising the Neil Williamson Memorial Trust and the University of Canterbury Law School for publishing this volume of essays, may I also add thanks to the Canterbury Law Review for their original publication.  In doing so, you give life to the ongoing development of our nation’s distinctive common law, and you serve well the memory of a remarkable man.

To conclude I wish to quote from a letter from then Ngāi Tahu Māori Trust Board chairman Sir Tipene O’Regan to Maree Williamson offering his condolences on Neil’s death.  Commenting on the wider significance of the Te Weehi case, Sir Tipene wrote: “Your husband’s life manifested an intelligent and humane courage.  We are the inheritors of the fruit of a brief moment of that courageous life.  We can mark his passing and we will not readily forget his place in our history.”

And on a note which resonates this statement, it gives me great pleasure to declare this book, A Very Special Man, officially launched and I will now close in New Zealand’s first language, offering everyone greetings and wishing you all good health and fortitude in your endeavours.     No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.