The Commissioners

Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Palmer - President

Sir Geoffrey was appointed as President of the Law Commission on 1 December 2005 for a term of five years. Sir Geoffrey has had a long career in the law, as an academic lawyer, a politician, and a law practitioner.

Educated at the Victoria University of Wellington where he graduated BA in political science and LLB, he was awarded a British Commonwealth Fellowship at the University of Chicago where he graduated Doctor of Law cum laude in 1967.

As the Member of Parliament for Christchurch Central from 1979-1990, he became Deputy Leader of the Opposition and later in 1984-1989 Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General. He was from 1984-1987 Leader of the House of Representatives as well. After the 1987 election, he became Minister for the Environment, a post he held until 1990. In 1989-1990 he was Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Both before entering politics and after leaving it, he was a Professor of Law at the Victoria University of Wellington and at the University of Iowa in the United States. In 1994 Geoffrey Palmer became a founding partner of Chen, Palmer & Partners, the Wellington based public law specialist law firm, but throughout his period of practice continued to teach at the Victoria University of Wellington and at the University of Iowa. He left the firm to join the Law Commission.

Geoffrey Palmer has written a long list of books and scholarly articles on legal matters. Perhaps the best known of them is: Unbridled Power: An Interpretation of New Zealand’s Constitution and Government first published in 1984, with a second edition in 1987. Then co-authoring with his son Dr Matthew Palmer, the book was re-titled as Bridled Power: New Zealand’s Constitution on Government, published in 1997, with the fourth edition in 2004. During his years in practice, Geoffrey Palmer appeared in the superior courts including the Privy Council in a number of important cases.

Since 2002, Geoffrey Palmer has been the New Zealand Commissioner on the International Whaling Commission.

He is a member of Her Majesty’s Privy Council. He was awarded a KCMG in 1991 and made an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia in the same year. In 1991 he was listed on the United Nations “Global 500 Roll of Honour” for his work on environmental issues. These included reforming resource management law. Geoffrey Palmer has also sat as a Judge ad hoc on International Court of Justice in 1995. He holds honorary doctorates from three Universities.

Dr Warren Young - Deputy President

Dr Young was appointed a full-time Law Commissioner for a term of 3 years from 3 May 2004. He was appointed Deputy President from 23 May 2005. Prior to that he was Deputy Secretary for Justice for 4 years, with responsibility for criminal law, criminal justice and crime prevention. From 1980 to 2000, Dr Young was Director of the Institute of Criminology and then a Professor of Law at Victoria University of Wellington. He also served as Assistant Vice Chancellor (Research) for 5 years. He was a Fulbright Fellow in 1985. He has been a co-author of Adams on Criminal Law since 1992.

Prof John Burrows QC

Professor John Burrows was appointed as a Law Commissioner for a term of 5 years from February 2007. Before this John Burrows was a Professor of Law at the University of Canterbury from 1974. He has a PhD (London) 1966 and an LLM (Canterbury) 1964. He is a Life Member of Clare Hall Cambridge in 2006, and Herbert Smith Visitor to The Faculty of Law, Cambridge in 2006. Prof Burrows is author or co-author of books on Statute Law, Media Law and Contract Law in New Zealand and has contributed to books on Tort Law and Commercial Law. He has written various journal articles. From 1980-1986 Prof Burrows was Head of Department and Dean of The Faculty of Law, University of Canterbury. From 1992-1998 he was Pro-Vice-Chancellor University of Canterbury and from 1999-2000 he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor University of Canterbury. He has chaired many central university committees and been a member of various national committees on tertiary education. He has been a Barrister of the High Court of New Zealand specialising in opinion work, and was appointed a Queens Counsel in 2005.

While at the University of Canterbury he lectured in Media Law, Contract and Legislation. He is a current member of the New Zealand Legislation Advisory Committee, and a Trustee for the New Zealand Law Foundation, and was formerly a member of the Contracts and Commercial Law Reform Committee. He has been involved in continuing education for the legal and journalism professions.

George Tanner QC

George Tanner QC was appointed a Law Commissioner in September 2007 for a term of 5 years. Before this George was the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and Compiler of Statutes in the Parliamentary Counsel Office and held these positions for 11 years.

He joined the Parliamentary Counsel Office in 1981 and has drafted legislation for over 25 years, much in the areas of company and securities law, banking, insurance, intellectual property, overseas investment, trade practices law, and housing. He drafted most of the legislation that provided for the corporatisation and privatisation during the 1980s and 1990s of many public corporations and businesses. Before joining the Parliamentary Counsel Office, George worked in private legal practice and was a Crown Counsel at the Crown Law Office.

George is a member of the Council of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel, and has delivered papers on legislation and legislative drafting at seminars and conferences in New Zealand and overseas, as well as publishing articles on those topics.

Val Sim

Val Sim was appointed a full time commissioner for a term of 3 years from Oct 2007. Val’s career has involved a mix of litigation, policy development and law reform. Val joined the Law Reform Division of the Department of Justice in 1992 after 15 years in private practice. There she developed a strong interest in law reform. What began as a two year contract to suit her family circumstances, became a 12 year stint with the Department and its successor the Ministry of Justice. She became Chief Legal Counsel at the Ministry of Justice in 1998. In 2004 Val was appointed Crown Counsel and team leader on the Human Rights team at the Crown Law.