Sir Peter Blanchard (born 2 August 1942) is a former judge of 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 ...

Biography

Blanchard was born in the

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about It ...

suburb of

Epsom Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...

on 2 August 1942, the son of Cyril and Zora Blanchard. His father served as a flying officer with the

Royal New Zealand Air Force The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) ( mi, Te Tauaarangi o Aotearoa, "The Warriors of the Sky of New Zealand"; previously ', "War Party of the Blue") is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed from New Zeal ...

during World War II, and died during air operations over Germany on 26 May 1943. In 1968, Blanchard received a Master of Laws degree from the University of Auckland Law School. He was then awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and a

Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship The Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship program is a scholarship program which funds students from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to undertake graduate study at Harvard University. The program is named after the businessman, sol ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class i ...

where he received a master's degree in law. He specialized in commercial, insolvency and property law as a partner at the

law firms of Grierson Jackson & Partners (1968–1983) and Simpson Grierson (1983 to 1992). In 1992, Blanchard was appointed as a judge of the High Court of New Zealand and in 1996, he was appointed as a judge of the

Court of Appeal of New Zealand The Court of Appeal of New Zealand is the principal intermediate appellate court of New Zealand. It is also the final appellate court for a number of matters. In practice, most appeals are resolved at this intermediate appellate level, rather t ...

. In 1998 Blanchard was appointed as a New Zealand member of the Privy Council and in 2004 was appointed to the

. Appointment to the Privy Council grants the right to use the style of The Right Honourable so Blanchard became The Right Honourable Justice Blanchard. In the

2005 New Year Honours New Year Honours were granted in the United Kingdom and New Zealand at the start of 2005. Among these in the UK were knighthoods awarded to Mike Tomlinson, the educationalist; Derek Wanless, who led a review of the National Health Service; and ...

, Blanchard was appointed a

Distinguished 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 rend ...

, for services to the judiciary, and in 2009 he accepted redesignation as 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 rend ...

following the reintroduction of titular honours by the government. Blanchard has also served as an expatriate justice of the

Supreme Court of Fiji The Supreme Court of Fiji is one of three courts established by the now-defunct Chapter 9 of the Constitution, the others being the High Court and the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court is declared to be ''"the final appellate court of the St ...

and the Court of Appeal of Kiribati. On 4 August 2021 he was appointed as an acting judge of the

Supreme Court of Samoa The Supreme Court of Samoa () is the superior court dealing with the administration of justice in Samoa. It was established by Part VI of the Constitution of Samoa. It consists of the Chief Justice of Samoa and other judges as appointed by the H ...

for a term of two years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanchard, Peter 1942 births Living people Harvard Law School alumni Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council 20th-century New Zealand judges Supreme Court of New Zealand judges University of Auckland alumni New Zealand judges on the courts of Fiji Supreme Court of Fiji justices Knights Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit New Zealand members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom New Zealand expatriates in the United States New Zealand judges on the courts of Kiribati New Zealand judges on the courts of Samoa 21st-century New Zealand judges Fulbright alumni