Ian Borrin Lecture

The Borrin Lecture is delivered in honour of Judge Ian Borrin, an alumnus and major supporter of the Victoria University of Wellington Law Review.

Judge Borrin was born in Wellington on 13 February 1935. He attended Wellington College and Victoria University of Wellington where he gained an LLB in 1958. He practised law until 1983 when he was appointed to the District Court. He served as head of the Police Complaints Authority from 2001 until he retired in 2007.

In 2010, with the Faculty of Law, he established a Visiting Fellowship in Law at the University. It aims to enable scholars, academics and members of the judiciary to visit the Law School, engage with the public through presentations and seminars, and enhance research by interacting with staff and postgraduate students.

Before his death in 2016 he established the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation to support legal research, scholarship, writing and education in New Zealand.

A room at the Law School, the Ian Borrin Reading Room, is named in his honour.

Ian Borrin Lecture 2024

Professor James Lee standing at a lecturn, side-angle shot
Professor James Lee

The 2024 Ian Borrin Lecture will be delivered by Professor James Lee, Professor of English Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law at King's College London.

Focusing on the Supreme Courts in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Professor Lee will argue that each Court has successfully developed its identity as an innovative and independent institution, and that narratives have enabled them to be more effective actors within their legal cultures.

Examining the distinctive creativity of the New Zealand Supreme Court, Professor Lee's lecture promises to be a thought-provoking discussion on the power of storytelling in shaping our understanding of the common law
and its institutions.  Read more

Past Borrin lectures have been given by:

  • 2023: Professor Aileen Kavanagh - Deconstructing Declarations
  • 2019: Professor Martti Koskenniemi - History of the Law of Nations: Sovereignty and Property
  • 2018: Martha C Nussbaum - Anger, Powerlessness, and the Politics of Blame
  • 2017: Professor Neil S Siegel - The US Constitution, Constitutional Conventions and President Trump
  • 2016: Professor Dawn Oliver - Constitutional Guardianship: The Roles of Public or State Sector Bodies
  • 2015: Professor Peter Mirfield - The Right to Confrontation in Three Common Law Jurisdictions
  • 2014: Professor Kent Roach - Remedies for Laws that Violate Human Rights: Breaking Down the Diochotomy of Strong and Weak Form Judicial Review
  • 2013: Sir Paul Walker - Rights, Wrong and Proportionality
  • 2011: Lord Collins of Mapesbury - With all due respect to the Judiciary?