The Robin Cooke Lecture is held in honour of the late Lord Cooke of Thorndon, a distinguished alumnus of Victoria University of Wellington’s Faculty of Law. Widely regarded as New Zealand's most eminent jurist, Lord Cooke is the only New Zealand judge to have served in the United Kingdom’s House of Lords.

A longstanding tradition at the Faculty of Law, the annual lecture is generously supported by the Cooke family and remains a highlight of the academic calendar.

In 2024, the Faculty is pleased to present the Robin Cooke Lecture by the Right Honorable Lord Sales, titled "What is the Rule of Law and Why Does it Matter?".

About Lord Sales

Justice of the Supreme Court, the Right Hon Lord Sales

Philip James Sales, Lord Sales became a Justice of the Supreme Court in January 2019.

Lord Sales was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, before reading law at both Churchill College, Cambridge, and Worcester College, Oxford.

He was called to the Bar of England and Wales at Lincoln's Inn in 1985 and was appointed First Treasury Junior Counsel in 1997. He was an Assistant Recorder from 1999 to 2001, Recorder from 2001 and 2008, and Deputy High Court Judge from 2004 and 2008.

Lord Sales became a Queen's Counsel in 2006 and continued to act in the re-named post of First Treasury Counsel Common Law until his appointment to the High Court, Chancery Division in 2008. He was a member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal between 2008 and 2015, and Vice-President of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal between 2014 and 2015.

Between 2009 and 2014 Lord Sales served as Deputy Chair of the Boundary Commission for England. He was appointed as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 2014.

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Lecture Abstract

What is the rule of law and why does it matter?

The concept of the rule of law is based on a cluster of ideas, spanning economic, political and moral domains. These are partially interlocking and reinforcing, and partly in tension with each other. The emphasis given to one or other set of ideas has practical implications for the positive law applied to resolve concrete cases. The lecture will seek to unpack the underlying ideas, from rule by law, to rule through law, to rule of law.

In the economic domain, law is a solution to collective action problems—a response to the 'tragedy of the commons'—and provides the predictability necessary to incentivise investment.

In the political domain, law is essential for the construction of political authority and then to give effect to democratic choice.

In the moral domain, law provides guarantees of freedom, dignity of the individual and the essential elements of effective co-existence in the circumstances of democracy.

The lecture will conclude by looking at the ways in which the tensions between the underlying ideas feed through into—and are resolved in practical terms at the level of—legal doctrine.