Hotung Fellow Public Lecture
Date and time
Location
Laws 108, Meremere
University Drive Ilam Christchurch, 8041 New ZealandDescription
Presented by: Justice Stephen Gageler
The Quantity and the Quality of Justice:
Constructivist and Ecological Rationality in a Common Law System
presented by
Justice Stephen Gageler
Sir Eric Hotung Visiting Fellow 2019
In this paper, Justice Gageler explores how lessons from behavioural economics are reflected in the judicial function and the institutional structure in which it is performed. This structure has what the economist Vernon Smith would call an “ecological rationality”, an internal logic that minimises errors in human judgment. Features of the structure which have this effect include the appointment of judges from senior ranks of the legal profession, the security of judicial tenure and remuneration, the personal discipline of the judge, the requirement to give reasons and the appellate process. But these structural features also carry risks to the quality of adjudication, and such risks call for what Smith would call “constructivist” intervention. The nature of such intervention has recently been topical in Australia in debates about judicial productivity.
Justice Stephen Gageler was appointed to the High Court in October 2012. At the time of his appointment, he was Solicitor-General of Australia. He is a graduate of the Australian National University and has post-graduate qualifications from Harvard University. He was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1989 and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2000. Before his appointment as Solicitor-General in 2008, he practised as a barrister extensively throughout Australia principally in constitutional law, administrative law and commercial law.
This is a public lecture to which members of the profession, students and the public are invited.
The Hotung Visiting Fellowship is administered by the Faculty of Law at the University of Canterbury for the purpose of hosting distinguished judges and legal research academics.
Drinks and canapes will follow the lecture. For catering purposes, please register by Tuesday 16 July 2019.
More information
Julie Scott
Phone: +64 3 3690406
Email: julie.scott@canterbury.ac.nz
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