Sharon Elizabeth Couper McAuslan (née Rutherford, 1945 – 24 May 2019) was a New Zealand jurist. She was a judge of the District Court from 1995 to 2015.

Legal career

Born in 1945, McAuslan was admitted to the bar in 1986. She was a senior Crown prosecutor in the Crown Solicitor's Office in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

in the early 1990s. She was a team leader in the New Zealand Law Society's litigation skills programme, and in 1991 and 1992, was an examiner 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 ...

for overseas lawyers wanting to qualify to practise in New Zealand. In 1995, McAuslan was appointed to the bench of the Auckland District Court, transferring to the North Shore District Court, and then, in 2000, to the

Manukau Manukau (), or Manukau Central, is a suburb of South Auckland, New Zealand, centred on the Manukau City Centre business district. It is located 23 kilometres south of the Auckland Central Business District, west of the Southern Motorway, so ...

District Court. She served as the criminal liaison judge for the Pukekohe and

Papakura Papakura is a southern suburb of Auckland, in northern New Zealand. It is located on the shores of the Pahurehure Inlet, approximately 32 kilometres south of the Auckland CBD. It is under the authority of the Auckland Council. Papakura is a M� ...

District Courts, and was a member of the District Court Jury Judges Committee. McAuslan retired from the bench in 2015. However, she was appointed an acting District Court Judge for two years from 30 January 2016, and was reappointed for a further two-year term from 14 January 2019. She spent much of her judicial career presiding at one of New Zealand's busiest courts. In the

2016 Queen's Birthday Honours The 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as pa ...

, McAuslan was appointed a

Companion of the Queen's Service Order The Queen's Service Order, established by royal warrant of Queen Elizabeth II on 13 March 1975, is used to recognise "valuable voluntary service to the community or meritorious and faithful services to the Crown or similar services within the pu ...

, for services to the judiciary.

Death

McAuslan died in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, on 24 May 2019.

References

Date of birth missing 1945 births 2019 deaths District Court of New Zealand judges Companions of the Queen's Service Order {{NewZealand-law-bio-stub