Laki Niu is a

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

n judge and former Member of the

Legislative Assembly of Tonga The Legislative Assembly of Tonga ( to, Fale Alea ʻo Tonga) is the unicameral legislature of Tonga. The assembly has 26 members in which 17 members elected by majority of the people for a 5-year term in multi-seat constituencies via the singl ...

. He was the first Tongan to sit on the

Supreme Court of Tonga The Supreme Court of Tonga is the superior court in Tonga. It hears criminal and civil cases and acts as an appellate court for Tonga's inferior courts, the Magistrates' Courts. Jurisdiction The Supreme Court can hear appeals as of right from any ...

in over a hundred years. Niu is a lawyer and was educated at 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 ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. In 1986 he challenged the government in court over improper parliamentary proceedings, and was subsequently elected as a People's Representative for

Tongatapu Tongatapu is the main island of Tonga and the site of its capital, Nukualofa. It is located in Tonga's southern island group, to which it gives its name, and is the country's most populous island, with 74,611 residents (2016), 70.5% of the nation ...

in the

1987 Tongan general election General elections were held in Tonga on 18 and 19 February 1987 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga. Nine nobles and nine people's representatives were elected. Five of the latter favoured democratic reform. Results Six of the ...

. He was re-elected in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, but lost his seat in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

after splitting with

ʻAkilisi Pōhiva Samiuela ʻAkilisi Pōhiva (7 April 1941 – 12 September 2019) was a Tongan pro-democracy activist and politician. Pohiva, the leader of the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands (DPFI), served as the Prime Minister of Tonga from 2014 to h ...

over the formalisation of the

Human Rights and Democracy Movement The Human Rights and Democracy Movement (HRDM) is a political party in Tonga. Its leader is Uliti Uata. The HRDM was founded in the late 1970s as an informal group of Tongans interested in democratic reform. It was formalised in 1992 as the Pro ...

into a political party. and the type of democracy it advocated. He subsequently served as President of the Tongan Law Society and remained as President each successive year until 2017 when he resigned. Niu was the longest serving President of the Tonga Law Society. In that role, he was an advocate for an independent judiciary and opposed corporal punishment and the death penalty. In June 2018 Niu was appointed to the Supreme Court. His contract ended on 30 June 2022, and he was replaced by Petunia Tupou. Following his departure journalist Kalafi Moala alleged that Niu's contract had initially been extended for another two years before abruptly being cancelled.

References

Living people Members of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga Supreme Court of Tonga justices University of Auckland alumni Year of birth missing (living people) {{Tonga-politician-stub