Gary Judd KC: Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students

The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied

I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation Review Committee concerning the Professional Law Examinations Tikanga Māori Requirements Amendment Regulations 2022 (“tikanga regulations”). Today the Law Association’s newsletter LawNews published an edited version of my complaint with the headlines reproduced above. My complaint in its edited form follows. The original, complete with LawNews graphics can be found here.

At present, the compulsory law degree subjects are The Legal System, The Law of Contracts, The Law of Torts, Criminal Law, Public Law and Property Law.

Kevin: On to the End Game

A real estate agent is facing a five-year ban after refusing to complete a compulsory short course on Maori culture and tikanga.

Janet Dickson labelled the course “woke madness” in a Facebook post and said that she was going to fight for her rights “to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else”.

Her refusal is based on concerns that an industry body can force its members to complete training “on a subject that is only peripherally connected to their job under threat of losing their right to work.”