Judicial education

Contents:

"Key competencies for judges include knowledge of the law and society, diligence and fairness.

"Today we also regard a judicial temperament as part of the judicial skill set. Through the Institute of Judicial Studies, judges receive education about the social structures, values and lives of people from all parts of society. Judges are taught about courtroom management skills to ensure that they can provide a fair hearing which is the centrepiece of our justice system. They are taught about the cognitive and linguistic disabilities which make it difficult for many defendants to engage with a hearing, and which have implications for culpability and sentence."

CHIEF JUSTICE HELEN WINKELMANN

Te Kura Kaiwhakawā | Institute of Judicial Studies

Te Kura Kaiwhakawā | Institute of Judicial Studies is responsible for providing education to all judges, at all stages of their careers. The education programme includes:

an intensive orientation programme for new judges covering the transition to judicial life, the role of the judge and courtroom management
regular programmes in evidence and procedure, decision-making and judgment writing
updates on substantive law
courses on social and legal context
renewal and resilience seminars to support judges to judge well – topics include leadership, mentoring and wellbeing and
tikanga and te reo.

Te Kura Kaiwhakawā also manages an online suite of resources for judges called bench books.

Judicial education programmes that respond to the final report of the Royal Commission

Te Kura Kaiwhakawā has developed an education programme responding to recommendation 33 of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based care. Seminars for District and Youth Court judges addressing the report have already been delivered.

Te Kura will provide further seminars in 2025 focusing on the Commission’s findings. In addition, it will revise an existing programme – Responding to Diversity and Vulnerabilities – to ensure it is directly reflective of recommendation 33 and deliver these to judicial officers across the country. Te Kura will review the content of Kia Mana te Tangata | Judging in Context: A Handbook, an online handbook available to all judicial officers, to identify what additional guidance might need to be developed to support the recommendation.[28]

It is of note that recommendation 25 supported existing judicial initiatives that address the causes of offending, naming Te Ao Mārama, the District Court operating model discussed in Part 2.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care: recommendation 33
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care is discussed further in Part 3 “Access to Justice”.

The Royal Commission’s report Whanaketia – Through pain and trauma, from darkness to light[29] contains recommendations for the judiciary. Recommendation 33 calls for people involved in the justice system (including judges) to receive education and training from subject matter experts on:

the Inquiry’s findings, including on the nature and extent of abuse and neglect in care, the pathway from care to custody, and the particular impacts on survivors of abuse and neglect experienced in care
trauma-informed investigative and prosecution processes
all forms of discrimination
engaging with neurodivergent people
human rights concepts, including the obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The Chief Justice and heads of bench have committed to addressing recommendation 33, resolving that all judges will receive education on the report and its findings. They noted in particular the need for judges to take a trauma-informed approach when dealing with survivors of abuse in State and faith-based care.

Advanced qualification for judges on tikanga and te reo Māori

Tikanga has informed court practice and process for decades in many jurisdictions in New Zealand. Tikanga, and tikanga-sourced concepts, are recognised both in legislation and in the common law. In addition, tikanga continues to guide whānau, hapū and iwi in everyday life, so is important social context for judges.

It is therefore necessary for judges to be educated in tikanga. Te Kura Kaiwhakawā has partnered with Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi to deliver an advanced postgraduate qualification to judges and lawyers on tikanga as a system of law, and its relationship with New Zealand’s legal framework. This was the first year that Pourewa Tikanga me te Ture was held. Several judges are part of the inaugural cohort.

Bench books and related resources

Bench books bring together up-to-date case law and statutes, legal commentary and practice notes for judges and judicial officers. They are an efficient and effective way of providing judges with legal content and contextual information relevant to the cases they commonly deal with.

Te Kura Kaiwhakawā publishes 12 bench books, eight of which relate to particular courts, and four that are specialist bench books. They are:

Senior Courts Bench Book
District Court Bench Book
Family Court Bench Book
Youth Court Bench Book
Te Puna Manawa Whenua | Māori Land Court Bench Book
Employment Court Bench Book
Environment Court Bench Book
Coroners Court Bench Book.

There are also four specialist bench books:

Criminal Jury Trials Bench Book
Sexual Violence Trials Bench Book
Family Violence Bench Book
Kia Mana te Tangata | Judging in Context: A Handbook.

Publishing the criminal jury trials bench book on Courts of New Zealand website
The Criminal Jury Trials Bench Book [30] was published on the Courts of New Zealand website in November – the first New Zealand bench book to be publicly available in full. Its publication is intended to increase transparency into and public understanding of judicial processes and in this way support public access to the content of the law – a key component of access to justice.

The bench book provides guidance and tools for criminal trial judges, helping them prepare their directions and summing-up in criminal trials. Publication provides information on the judicial process and the key questions that juries must address in reaching their verdicts.

Further public releases of bench books will follow in 2025 – beginning with Te Puna Manawa Whenua | the Māori Land Court Bench Book, and the Kia Mana te Tangata | Judging in Context: A Handbook later in the year.

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Footnotes

[28] Kia Mana te Tangata is a cross-jurisdictional resource designed to support judges’ awareness and understanding of the different circumstances of people who appear in court and provides practical tools that can assist judges in promoting a fair hearing.

[29] Whanaketia – Through pain and trauma, from darkness to light can be found at https://www.abuseincare.org.nz/reports/whanaketia.

[30] The Criminal Jury Trials Bench Book can be accessed on the Courts of New Zealand website at https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/publications/bench-books