Sir Joseph Victor Williams (born 1961) is a judge and the first Māori person appointed to the

Supreme Court of New Zealand The Supreme Court of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kōti Mana Nui, lit=Court of Great Mana) is the highest court and the court of last resort of New Zealand. It formally came into being on 1 January 2004 and sat for the first time on 1 July 2004. It re ...

Early life

Williams was brought up in

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

by a great-uncle and a great-aunt alongside his cousins. He is of

Ngāti Pūkenga Ngāti Pūkenga is a Māori iwi centred in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. Its rohe (tribal area) extends to Mayor Island / Tuhua and Waihi in the north, to the Kaimai Range in the west, south of Te Puke and to Maketu in th ...

and

Te Arawa Te Arawa is a confederation of Māori iwi and hapu (tribes and sub-tribes) of New Zealand who trace their ancestry to the Arawa migration canoe (''waka'').Lindisfarne College Lindisfarne College was a private school or independent school. It was founded in 1891 in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, England. In 1940 Lindisfarne College moved from Westcliff to nearby Creeksea Place, but during the Second World War the buildin ...

. He went on to study at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

, where he first studied

Māori language Māori (), or ('the Māori language'), also known as ('the language'), is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of mainland New Zealand. Closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and ...

and then law. He graduated in 1986 with an

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degree from Victoria, and later with a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

with first-class honours in indigenous rights law from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

. He had worked as a junior law lecturer at Victoria University before studying his master's degree. In the 1980s, Williams was a musician as a member of the Ngāhiwi Apanui-led band Aotearoa, known for their bilingual

Pacific reggae Pacific reggae is a style of reggae music found in the Pacific. This style is found in Polynesia (including New Zealand and Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about ...

song "Maranga Ake Ai" (1985).

Legal career

Williams contributed to the legal team for the 1985

Treaty of Waitangi claim Claims and settlements under the Treaty of Waitangi have been a significant feature of New Zealand politics since the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the Waitangi Tribunal that was established by that act to hear claims. Successive governments h ...

which led to the adoption of te reo Māori as an official language of New Zealand. In 1988 he joined Kensington Swan, where he specialised in Māori issues and environmental law. He became a partner at Kensington Swan in 1992, leaving in 1994 to co‑found Walters Williams & Co. In 1999, at the age of 38, he became the youngest person to be appointed Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court. In 2004, Williams was appointed the Chairperson of the

Waitangi Tribunal The Waitangi Tribunal (Māori: ''Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi'') is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. It is charged with investigating and making recommendations on cla ...

after acting in that role for several years. In 2008, he was appointed a Justice 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 2017, he became the first Te Reo Māori speaker appointed to the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of New Zealand in May 2019, succeeding

William Young William, Will, Bill or Billy Young may refer to: Arts and entertainment * William Young (composer) (died 1662), English composer and viola da gambist * William Young (architect) (1843–1900), Scottish architect, designer of Glasgow City Chambers ...

. Williams is the first Māori person to be appointed to the Supreme Court. Williams is a former Vice-President of the Māori Law Society, and a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He has written about tikanga Māori and New Zealand law. His future vision for New Zealand law is for a time "when tikanga Māori fuses with New Zealand’s common law tradition to form a hybrid law of Aotearoa that could be developed by judges, case by base." He gave the Ivan Kwok lecture in 2022 where he set out his views on the government's Treaty of Waitangi partnerships with Māori and the struggle of government to give effect to its treaty commitments.

Awards and honours

In the

2020 New Year Honours The 2020 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebration ...

, he was appointed a

Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have ren ...

, for services to the judiciary. His investiture ceremony took place in April 2021 at his home marae in the Coromandel town of Manaia.

Selected publications

* Williams, Joe. (July 2001). "The Māori Land Court: A Separate Legal System?" New Zealand Centre for Public Law. https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/public-law/publications/occasional-papers/pdfs/JWilliams-web-paper.pdf * Williams, Joe. (June 2008). "Confessions of a Native Judge: Reflections on the role of transitional justice in the transformation of indigeneity." Native Title Research Unit. Archived at http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/LRightsLaws/2008/3.pdf.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Joe 1961 births 20th-century New Zealand male singers Court of Appeal of New Zealand judges High Court of New Zealand judges Knights Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit Living people Māori Land Court judges Members of the Waitangi Tribunal 20th-century New Zealand lawyers New Zealand male musicians New Zealand Māori judges New Zealand Māori musicians Pacific reggae People educated at Lindisfarne College, New Zealand Peter A. Allard School of Law alumni Supreme Court of New Zealand judges Ngāti Pūkenga people Te Arawa people Victoria University of Wellington alumni 21st-century New Zealand lawyers