David Farrar: The very unhappy AUT law faculty

I have been leaked a copy of the latest staff survey from AUT Law Faculty and it is very clear that it is a very unhappy place. Here are some of their results:

Samira Taghavi: What happens to societies when dissent is crushed?

I have a question for lawyers of my age or older: in your student days, could you have imagined your law school dean writing that an eminent legal commentator, with years of senior court experience, was an “old racist dinosaur” who should “go die quietly in the corner”?

You might, like I, remember your dean and other faculty members as having had great influence in building your talent and exemplifying skill in truly calm and deliberative debate. But about two weeks ago, Khylee Quince, the Dean of AUT Law School, posted on social media the above ‘go die’ condemnation of Gary Judd KC, after publication of Judd KC’s essay in LawNews on May 3, explaining his move to protect law students (as he sees it) from an education infused with extra-legal indoctrination. Whether you agree with Judd KC or not, no lawyer should mistake such insults for actual debate.

Roger Partridge: The Tikanga challenge for law schools, the rule of law - and Parliament.

Barrister Gary Judd KC’s complaint to the Regulatory Review Committee has sparked a fierce debate about the place of tikanga Māori – or Māori customs, values and spiritual beliefs – in the law.

Judd opposes the New Zealand Council of Legal Education’s plans to make teaching tikanga compulsory in the legal curriculum.

AUT Law School Dean Khylee Quince derided Judd on social media as a “racist dinosaur”. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters condemned the planned tikanga requirements as “woke indoctrination”.

Sean Plunket is joined by Muriel Newman & Maurice Williamson for Free Speech Fridays

Sean Plunket chats with Dr Muriel Newman and Maurice Williamson on the Platform about the Law courses requirement of Tikanga Maori, Te Tiriti justice system, take treaty and race out of legislation, Khylee Quince's comment, and more.....

Click to view

Dr Don Brash: Letter sent to the Vice Chancellor AUT

The following was written on behalf of Hobson's Pledge:

Dear Vice Chancellor Damon Salesa,

We are a group of New Zealanders whose primary objective is to fight for equality under the law and advance the vision Governor William Hobson expressed at Waitangi in 1840.

Gary Judd KC: A law school to be avoided

The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for law students,” written these enlightened words: