New Inns of Court Fellow will work on New Zealand research at SAS

Wednesday 23 February 2022

Justice Forrie Miller, a judge in the New Zealand Court of Appeal, joins the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) this month as its 2021–2 Inns of Court Fellow.

During his tenure at the Institute, a member of the University of London’s School of Advanced Study (SAS), he will be undertaking a comparative analysis around the topic of ‘Unforeseen consequences: the impact of a new apex court on the work of New Zealand intermediate appellate court’. The Inns of Court fellowship scheme is open to senior judges from Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa and the US (federal).

Justice Forrie Miller, who has been recognised for his contribution to the modernisation of the New Zealand court system, was appointed to the High Court of New Zealand in 2004, and to the Court of Appeal in 2013. While at the High Court he was executive judge for the Wellington circuit. He was formerly chairman of Chapman Tripp, solicitors, where he had a commercial litigation practice focused on securities, regulatory and competition law. 

He designed and until 2013, managed the Earthquake Commission List for the many cases arising from the Christchurch earthquakes. For this work he shared the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Award for Excellence, becoming one of the first New Zealanders to receive this accolade.

In the Court of Appeal Justice Miller has been responsible for developing electronic casebooks, which are now routinely used in criminal and civil jurisdictions. He previously chaired the Judicial Reference Group, a crossbench committee working with the Ministry of Justice on an electronic content management system which will lead to electronic filing and case management systems in all New Zealand courts, and the Judicial Libraries Management Board, which exercises governance responsibilities over judicial libraries. In 2020 he was heavily involved in leading New Zealand courts’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic. His publication, ‘Reform of Courts Administration in New Zealand', calls for a partnership model of courts administration.

For more information, please contact Eliza Boudier (eliza.boudier@sas.ac.uk).