
Justice Whata Seminar on He Poutama (Pūrongo Rangahau | Study Paper 24)
We are delighted to announce that Justice Christian Whata will present a seminar on the recently published Study Paper He Poutama (NZLC SP24) about tikanga and the law. The paper completes the tikanga Māori project that has been led for Te Aka Matua o te Ture/Law Commission by Justice Whata for the past two years and aims to ensure that tikanga and state law are able to engage with one another with integrity.
Justice Whata will speak on the Study Paper for 45 minutes, followed by a 15 minute Q&A session. We will then have experts discussing the nuggets they found helpful in the Paper and how best to use the Paper, including in private practice and teaching tikanga in the LLB curriculum (as required from 1 January 2025).
Justice Whata was appointed a High Court judge in 2011. He was based in Christchurch from 2012-2015, with circuit work throughout the South Island. From 2016 he has been based in Auckland, with circuit work including Rotorua, Tauranga, Hamilton and Whangarei. He has adjudicated on a wide range of subject matters, including major common law, commercial, public, environmental, Māori and criminal matters. He is also a member of the faculty of Te Kura Kaiwhakawā | Institute of Judicial Studies responsible for the Tikanga Programme. While in practice, Justice Whata specialised in Māori legal issues and public and environmental law. He is from Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāti Tamateatūtahi – Kawiti of Te Arawa.
This is a CPD event (2 hours)