A senior King’s Counsel has filed a complaint to the Government’s Regulations Review Committee over incoming compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students.   

Gary Judd KC told the Herald he did so because up until now the curriculum for lawyers has been made up of what he described as “proper law subjects”, such as criminal law and the law of torts. 

“Tikanga is a system of beliefs, a system which indicates the way the Māori people who subscribe to tikanga consider is the right way of doing things. So it is quite different,” Judd said. 

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters also weighed into the debate by supporting Judd’s complaint in a statement and social media post. 

“Tikanga is not law. It is cultural indoctrination,” Peters said. 

“Law students should not be force-fed this kind of woke indoctrination from some culture warrior’s slanted version of what tikanga means.” 

But emeritus professor of law at University of Auckland Jane Kelsey told the Herald she disagrees with Judd’s complaint, saying New Zealand is lucky to have a curriculum which reflects the country’s history. 

“Mr Judd is about the same vintage as me. The Treaty warranted one class in my entire law degree, and that was the English version. Thankfully, we now have a more informed curriculum that reflects our history, colonial and Māori, which has fed through into a more informed jurisprudence,” Kelsey said. 

Kelsey said she found students embraced learning about the Māori ethical and spiritual relationships encompassed in tikanga and it provided valuable perspective. 

“I found my students embraced the richness of that approach. It is now reflected in our courts as well, recognising that tikanga is not just another system of law but one that Te Tiriti said would continue to operate alongside the common law.” 

Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington describes tikanga as Māori customary practices or behaviours. 

“The concept is derived from the Māori word ‘tika’ which means ‘right’ or ‘correct’ so, in Māori terms, to act in accordance with tikanga is to behave in a way that is culturally proper or appropriate,” the university states. 

Yet in Judd’s complaint, he argued the new requirement was “symptomatic of a dangerous trend” where those with the power to do so seek to impose the beliefs and values of one section of society upon the community as a whole. 

“They do so in this instance by pretending that tikanga is law and therefore it is fitting to compel law students to learn about it,” he wrote. 

Judd felt it was inappropriate for the New Zealand Council of Legal Education to compel all law students to engage in something which he said was not law at all. 

He told Mike Hosking that he believes a small group of people imposing their beliefs on the population are responsible. 

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