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Palmer, Geoffrey Rt Hon Sir --- "Forward" [2006] NZLawStuJl 1; (2011) 1 NZLSJ 5

Last Updated: 24 October 2012

FOREWORD

RT. HON. SIR GEOFFREY PALMER

As the newly elected patron of the New Zealand Law Students’ Association it gives me great pleasure to contribute this foreword to volume 1 of the New Zealand Law Students’ Journal. To witness young minds grappling with difficult issues is always a wonderful thing.

The range of essays in this volume is wide, as a glance at the contents page will show. There are hard conceptual legal issues, social issues with a legal aspect and even an analysis of what the evolution of common law legal attire may mean. International law, environmental law and the Treaty of Waitangi, tax, competition law, women’s health care, restitution, the law of evidence, and predictive genetic screening are all covered.

These essays are the work of students who recently graduated or are yet to graduate. The quality of the work is high and an indication of the depth of talent among the law students in New Zealand universities. The analytical depth and sophistication of some of this work is remarkable. The work is well written, thoroughly researched and most interesting.

Legal writing is a specialized branch of scholarship, not an easy art to acquire. It is a habit that, when acquired young, can be very useful for lawyers to carry through in the whole of their professional careers.

New Zealand produces good lawyers and the standard of legal education in New Zealand is high, as the constant demand for young New Zealand lawyers overseas proves. The contents of this volume helps to show us why.

This Journal is a welcome addition to the annals of New Zealand legal scholarship and the students are to be commended on the drive and initiative that led to it. It is much more difficult to produce a law journal than people who have not tried to do so may think. It requires determination and dedication to get it written to a satisfactory level, edit

it effectively, check the citations and see it through the production process.

Well done New Zealand law students and congratulations. Geoffrey Palmer

^{President of the Law Commission}