Amokura Kawharu is a New Zealand legal academic and barrister. Kawharu was elected as a Fellow of the

Royal Society Te Apārangi The Royal Society Te Apārangi (in full, Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi) is an independent, statutory not-for-profit body in New Zealand providing funding and policy advice in the fields of sciences and the humanities. History The R ...

in 2021. She is the first woman and the first

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

to be president of the New Zealand Law Commission.

Academic and legal career

Kawharu earned a BA/LLB(Hons) degree from the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

, followed by a Master of Laws at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, with a major in international law. From 1997 to 2004 she practised commercial law in Sydney and Auckland, and between 2005 and 2020 worked at the

, specialising in

arbitration Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ' ...

, property law and international economic regulation. She is a barrister of the

High Court of New Zealand The High Court of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kōti Matua o Aotearoa) is the superior court of New Zealand. It has general jurisdiction and responsibility, under the Senior Courts Act 2016, as well as the High Court Rules 2016, for the administration ...

. In 2020 she was appointed as President of the

New Zealand Law Commission New Zealand's Law Commission was established in 1986 by the Law Commission Act 1985. The Commission is an independent Crown entity as defined in the Crown Entities Act 2004. The main objective of the Law Commission, as declared in its founding ...

, and is both the first woman and the first Māori appointed to the role. Kawharu is part of New Zealand's Māori Centre of Research Excellence, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. Kawharu has published widely in the arbitration law field, and is co-author with David Williams KC of the leading text on arbitration law in New Zealand, ''Williams & Kawharu on Arbitration''. Now on its second edition, the first won the

Legal Research Foundation The Legal Research Foundation is a body affiliated with the Faculty of Law of the University of Auckland, New Zealand. It was founded in 1965 to foster legal research and links between the legal profession Legal profession is a profession in whi ...

's JF Northey Memorial Book Award for 2011.

Awards

Kawharu is a Fellow of the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand. In 2021 she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi. The citation said Kawharu "is the foremost scholar of New Zealand arbitration law. ...Although an established field elsewhere, New Zealand had no tradition of arbitration scholarship. With new laws adopted in 1996 and the re-birth of arbitration practice, Kawharu established arbitration as a field of academic study in New Zealand, has led reform and development of arbitration law through her scholarship and advocacy, and raised its profile internationally. As President of the Law Commission, she is now also leading the consideration of te ao Māori in the process of law reform."

Personal life

She is affiliated with

Ngāti Whātua Ngāti Whātua is a Māori iwi (tribe) of the lower Northland Peninsula of New Zealand's North Island. It comprises a confederation of four hapū (subtribes) interconnected both by ancestry and by association over time: Te Uri-o-Hau, Te Roroa, Te ...

and

Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi (or Ngā Puhi) is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland region of New Zealand and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei. According to the 2018 New Zealand census, the estimated population of Ngāpuhi is 165, ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

. She is the daughter of the late Sir Hugh and Lady Freda Kawharu. https://waateanews.com/2020/02/12/kawharu-to-lead-law-commission/

References

External links

Is arbitration a model for Māori dispute resolution?
(Kawharu's new fellow's seminar at the Royal Society Te Apārangi) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kawharu, Amokura New Zealand academics New Zealand women academics University of Auckland faculty Ngāti Whātua people Ngāpuhi people University of Auckland alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge New Zealand legal scholars Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand Living people