Chief Judge J V Williams
(VUM, LLM (Hoes) (UBC) Canada
Maori Land Court
Deputy Chairperson, Waitangi Tribunal
Tribal affiliations - Ngati Pukenga and Te Arawa (Waitaha, Tapuika)This speaker's paper is available here.
Joseph Victor Williams was appointed Chief Judge, Maori Land Court in December 1999. Shortly thereafter he was appointed as Deputy Chairperson, Waitangi Tribunal.
During the course of his study and career he has attained many credible "firsts". He was the first Maori lecturer in law at Victoria University in Wellington, before gaining a Masters degree with first class honours in indigenous rights law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. On his return to New Zealand in 1988, he worked for the Auckland office of Kensington Swan where he established the first unit specialising in Maori issues among the major law firms. He also developed a large environmental law practice. He was appointed a partner at Kensington Swan in 1992.
In 1994, he was one of the founding partners of Walters Williams & Co. He specialised in litigation in areas of resource management and environmental law, Maori issues and Treaty of Waitangi claims, Maori land law, all areas of administrative and public law.
In 1999 he was awarded the Maori Students Millennium Prize as a former student of Victoria University of Wellington.
He is an internationally recognised expert in indigenous rights law and one of New Zealand's leading specialists in Maori issues and prior to his appointment to the Maori Land Court, he has been a regular guest speaker at national and international conferences on indigenous rights and environmental law and has published extensive academic papers on both subjects. In addition to the many papers presented at conferences, his published works include: 'Back to the Future', In "He Puna Wairere" (NZ Planning Council 1990); 'Redistributed not Ceded', In "The Treaty of Waitangi from an International Perspective" (Stout Research Centre 1991); 'Chapman is Wrong!', In (1991) New Zealand Law Journal; 'Maori in New Zealand Law at the End of the Cooke Era where have we got to?', In "The Struggle for Simplicity - Essays for Lord Cooke Of Thorndon" (Legal Research Foundation 1997); 'Quality Relations - The Key to Maori Survival', In "Living Relationships - The Treaty of Waitangi in the New Millennium" (GP Print 1998).
