AUSTRALASIAN LAW REFORM AGENCIES CONFERENCE Wellington, New Zealand, 13 to 16 April 2004 ________________________________________________________ LAW REFORM POTENTIAL IN THE PACIFIC AREA   Address by H.E. Tuiloma Neroni Slade Judge of the International Criminal Court Introduction The proposition that there is law reform potential in the Pacific area would need to be assessed against the conditions of the Pacific of today, the priorities and challenges that call for response, and in light of the diversity in the law reform experience of the Pacific.   There are marked contrasts between the established and comparatively well-resourced law reform institutions in Australia and New Zealand, on the one hand; and the much less developed, often ad hoc arrangements in the smaller Pacific island States, on the other.    The advantages of capacities and resources does not make the task of law reform any less challenging for the larger jurisdictions; nor does it necessarily follow, for the small countries, that there must be relegation of the law reform process or that there are no real choices or alternative opportunities.   Under these circumstances it is not easy, at least for the purposes of this paper, to provide a general measure for assessing broad potential based on the prospects of any one methodology or law reform agenda.  However, given the changes occurring in the Pacific and the legislative programmes and initiatives being developed and ongoing in the region, there may be need to assume a broad outlook of the function of law reform and its machinery and to ask how they might best respond to these changes.      In part in order to better manage a rather large topic, I propose to take the perspective of the small Pacific island jurisdictions.  It is important that we gain some understanding of how the process of law reform is being conducted in the smaller countries, of their concerns and the challenges they face.  We should also look at current activities in the development of laws and cooperative measures in the region that could suggest useful options for the future.  In this connection I observe of the topic for our consideration that it seems to make an interesting connection between law reform, as normally understood in its traditional domestic setting, and law reform as a process with potential in the broader non-domestic environment of the Pacific area.  It seems worthwhile examining this connection to see how current trends and developments in the Pacific region might offer scope for practical activities and for greater Pacific cooperation in law reform.  I do so in the context of a Pacific region that is already substantially influenced and affected by the forces of global change and by events and decisions taken by others elsewhere, whether by regional authorities or by the wider international community.    The Pacific area The better known face of the Pacific area is the poster vision of remoteness, tranquility and exotic wonders.  There is fair basis for such a vision, taken by country or as a whole,