Joe Williams (judge)

Sir Joseph Victor Williams KNZM (born 1961) is a judge and the first Māori person appointed to the Supreme Court of New Zealand.[1]

The Honourable
Sir Joe Williams
KNZM
Williams in 2019
Justice of the Supreme Court
Assumed office
2 May 2019
Judge of the Court of Appeal
In office
20 December 2017 – 1 May 2019
Personal details
Born
Joseph Victor Williams

1961 (age 61–62)
Alma materVictoria University of Wellington
University of British Columbia

Early life

Williams was brought up in Hastings by a great-uncle and a great-aunt alongside his cousins. He is of Ngāti Pūkenga and Te Arawa descent. By 14, he was working in the freezing works to contribute to the family income.[2]

Williams won a scholarship and was educated at Lindisfarne College.[3] He went on to study at Victoria University of Wellington, where he first studied Māori language and then law.[4] He graduated in 1986 with an Bachelor of Laws degree from Victoria, and later with a Master of Laws with first-class honours in indigenous rights law from the University of British Columbia. He had worked as a junior law lecturer at Victoria University before studying his master's degree.[5]

In the 1980s, Williams was a musician as a member of the Ngāhiwi Apanui-led band Aotearoa, known for their bilingual Pacific reggae song "Maranga Ake Ai" (1985).[3][6]

Williams contributed to the legal team for the 1985 Treaty of Waitangi claim which led to the adoption of te reo Māori as an official language of New Zealand.[7][8] In 1988 he joined Kensington Swan, where he specialised in Māori issues and environmental law. He became a partner at Kensington Swan in 1992, leaving in 1994 to co‑found Walters Williams & Co.

In 1999, at the age of 38, he became the youngest person to be appointed Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court. In 2004, Williams was appointed the Chairperson of the Waitangi Tribunal after acting in that role for several years.[9]

In 2008, he was appointed a Justice of the High Court of New Zealand.[10] In 2017, he became the first Te Reo Māori speaker appointed to the Court of Appeal.[11] He was appointed to the Supreme Court of New Zealand in May 2019, succeeding William Young.[12] Williams is the first Māori person to be appointed to the Supreme Court.[1][13]

Williams is a former Vice-President of the Māori Law Society, and a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.[14] He has written about tikanga Māori and New Zealand law. His future vision for New Zealand law is for a time "when tikanga Māori fuses with New Zealand’s common law tradition to form a hybrid law of Aotearoa that could be developed by judges, case by base."[13][15] He gave the Ivan Kwok lecture in 2022 where he set out his views on the government's Treaty of Waitangi partnerships with Māori and the struggle of government to give effect to its treaty commitments.[16][17]

Awards and honours
Williams' investiture as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by the governor-general, Dame Patsy Reddy, at Manaia Marae on 10 April 2021

In the 2020 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the judiciary.[18][19] His investiture ceremony took place in April 2021 at his home marae in the Coromandel town of Manaia.[20]

Selected publications

References
  1. "Judges — Courts of New Zealand". www.courtsofnz.govt.nz. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  2. Maniapoto, Moana (16 May 2021). "Justice Joe Williams: Let's try and get it right". E-Tangata. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  3. Maniapoto, Moana (16 May 2021). "Justice Joe Williams: Let's try and get it right". e-tangata. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  4. Maxwell, Joel (19 September 2020). "Justice Joe Williams on te reo Māori, and synthesising Aotearoa law". Stuff. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  5. "New Year Honours: First Supreme Court Māori judge made knights companion". NZ Herald. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  6. Sheehan, Maree (2 February 2016). "Mana Wahine: Māori Women in Music". Te Kaharoa. 9 (1). doi:10.24135/tekaharoa.v9i1.12. ISSN 1178-6035. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
  7. "Value of te reo Māori for all 'is what will save it' - Justice Joe Williams". RNZ. 5 November 2020. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  8. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. "The WAI11 claim". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  9. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. "Chief Judge Joe Williams". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  10. "Appointment of High Court Judge". The Beehive. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  11. "Appointment of Judge of the Court of Appeal". The Beehive. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  12. "Appointments to Supreme Court and Court of Appeal". The Beehive. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  13. Maxwell, Joel (18 September 2020). "Justice Joe Williams on te reo Māori, and synthesising Aotearoa law". Stuff. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  14. "Judges — Courts of New Zealand". Courtsofnz.govt.nz. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  15. Van Beynen, Martin (8 July 2020). "The Peter Ellis case and Māori customary law". Stuff. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  16. Bingham, Eugene (26 June 2022). "Top judge challenges public servants to wake up to 'historical amnesia'". Stuff. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  17. Sallee, Nikitin. "The Kwok: a public servant 'doing his job'". businessdesk.co.nz. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  18. "New Year Honours 2020: The full list". The New Zealand Herald. 31 December 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  19. "Justice Joseph Williams – first Māori appointed to the Supreme Court bench – awarded knighthood". Stuff.co.nz. 31 December 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  20. "Aotearoa's first Māori Supreme Court judge returns to his tūrangawaewae to be knighted". TVNZ. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
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