The Association was formed by meeting of Foundation Members in early September 2018. Subsequently, the group was incorporated on 1 October 2018 under number 2717951.
Initial work to establish the Association was held up due to the work load of the various judges involved and my own personal circumstances. However, I am pleased to report that we now have:
Common seal;
Bank account with the ANZ;
A website, which is established, and a website administrator, Lara, who is attending to this on a day-to-day basis;
Membership of the International Association of Judges, which was applied for in late 2018. The Rapporteur’s report appeared around Feb/March 2019 and we were admitted as formal members in September 2019 at the International Association of Judges Conference at Kazakhstan.
Membership of the IAJ
The International Association of Judges includes a number of countries with very similar traditions to our own including England, Canada, Australia, as well as most of the major European countries including Sweden, Finland, Holland, Denmark etc.
I attended the Marrakech, the International Association of Judges Conference at my own cost in 2018 to understand better how the association worked, and to make contacts within the organisation.
We were particularly warmly received by England, Canada, and Australia and invited to attend as observers to Asia, North America, and Oceania Group meetings. This includes, of course, Canada, Australia, and Britain, normally seen as an observer to these meetings also. Beyond the various regional groups, there are particular study commissions dealing with particular issues.
Admission at IAJ Conference Kazakhstan
I also attended at my cost the 2019 Kazakhstan Conference, when we were formally admitted as a member. I was not able to attend all the study commissions but can confirm that all of the study commissions deal with issues that are relevant to at least parts of our jurisdiction and deal with widespread common issues to those that concern the judiciary in New Zealand. For example, at the 2018 Conference:
The first study commission was dealing with the public criticism of judges and judicial decisions, state powers, media, and social media. In 2019 it dealt with social media and the judiciary, particularly, how to respond to unfair comments and the use of social media by courts and judges.
The second study commission on civil law and procedure and studied problems such as the financing of litigation in 2019 and strategies for effective case management in 2018.
The third study commission on criminal law and procedure addressed the media and criminal cases in 2019 and the treatment of witnesses including children, protected witnesses, etc., in 2018.
The fourth study commission on public and social law dealt with harassment in 2019 and the rights and obligations of refugees in 2018.
Various commissions are currently sending questionnaires in relation to the current study topic and if you have an interest in any of these areas, please advise.
2020 Costa Rica IAJ Conference
The next conference is in San Jose, Costa Rica between 23-26 September 2020. At this stage, it is still unclear that the judges travel fund will contribute towards the costs of any conference but if you are interested, please contact myself or Gerard Winter. I intend again to attend at my own cost.
Judicial Conference in Australasia
We also have a fairly close association with the Judicial Conference of Australia, an equivalent body in Australia which is a member of the IAJ. Through particular contact with retired Justice Pagone and Justice Glenn Martin, we are making arrangements for a conference here in Auckland between 9-11 October 2020. Clearly, high attendance by members of our Association would cement the relationship with the Australian contingent. Judge Gerard Winter will speak to the conference in more detail shortly.
Membership
As members will be aware, the Association started with some 60 foundation members and this has grown over the last year or so, without any form of direct advertising. I have recently sent a letter to all judges outlining JANZ’s purpose and inviting applications. As I understand, membership sits somewhere around 85 or perhaps more and we would intend to start promoting the Association more in the next few months with the objective of having over 100 members by the time of the conference in October.
The Association is in good heart with some $16,000 in the bank at current time, accounting for setup costs and establishment of the website and membership of the International Association. Given that many of the members have paid their membership for three years, there will be limited income in the next two years in manual subscriptions and this needs to be accounted for in our work.
In the meantime, we are in discussion with various parties as to the benefits that might be derived from membership (beyond a cap). Gerard will also report on these aspects.
As most of you are aware, this has been a difficult year for me and I consider it is appropriate the Association separate from the Elected Reps over the next few years. As a first step towards this, I would like to stand down as president of the Association. This does not mean that I will not be involved as the immediate past president hold a role on the board in any event. Nevertheless, it will enable me to focus on the elected representative’s issues.
Judge Jeff Smith
President JANZ
Te Hunga Kaiwhakawā o Aotearoa
Judges Association of New Zealand (Inc)