Faculty of Law remembers Justice Simon France
Te Kauhanganui Tātai Ture―Faculty of Law remembers Justice Simon France, who passed away recently at the age of 64, as an esteemed and respected colleague.
Justice France taught Administrative Law and Criminal Law at the faculty from 1984 to 1995, serving as Deputy Dean in the early 90’s before leaving to join Crown Law to pursue a career as a lawyer.
Emeritus Professor, Sir Kenneth Keith recalls “the Faculty was delighted to recruit him ahead of Auckland University.” Justice France and his wife, Supreme Court Justice Dame Ellen France, both had LLMs from Queen's University in Canada where they had been taught by David Mullan, a Victoria University of Wellington graduate and former faculty member. “I ended my full-time teaching in 1986, not long after Simon arrived. He took over my Administrative Law teaching,” says Sir Kenneth.
His colleagues and students found him to be a warm and engaging teacher with a deep knowledge of the law and a no-nonsense approach. Professor Geoffrey McLay, who was one of his students at the time, says, “Simon was deeply loved by his students as a kind and wonderful lecturer.”
Professor McLay believes Justice France understood the pressures faced by students and had a way of making them feel at ease, which encouraged critical thinking. “I think it was in Simon’s classes that I first thought I could criticize the law,” he says. He recalls one particular Criminal Law lecture where, in a crowded auditorium, with heart thumping, he delivered what he thought to be “an amazingly insightful view―that unsuccessful offence attempts should be punished in the same way as completed offences.
“Simon smiled as though it was the most original thing ever, mulled it over, and left me feeling like my little ‘heresy’ was not so ridiculous. The next time I answered something, my heart thumped a little less,” he says.
Professor McLay joined the faculty in the mid-1990s and found the then-Deputy Dean a kind mentor. Professor Yvette Tinsley, who joined the faculty well after Justice France had left to join the bench, agrees that once at the High Court, he continued to support and mentor Faculty of Law academics, particularly in the area of Criminal Law. “Always a wise sounding-board, Justice France showed great interest in Faculty research regarding evidence law and, most recently, emotional stress and well-being in the criminal courts,” she says.
Justice France made New Zealand legal history by joining his wife, Justice Dame Ellen France, on the High Court bench when he was appointed a High Court judge in 2005. Sir Kenneth, who by this stage was Justice Keith, recalls with real appreciation Simon’s excellent and fair presentations to the Court of Appeal, notably in criminal cases, when he was in the Crown Law Office. “He was always on top of the facts and the law, a brilliant advocate, but willing as well to assist floundering defence counsel,” he says.
Professor Mark Hickford, Pro Vice-Chancellor Government, Law, and Business, recalls, as an undergraduate law student at Auckland University, reading and re-reading Justice France’s academic work on mens rea and strict liability.
Years later, Professor Hickford met Justice France in person at the Crown Law Office when he was employed as a Crown Counsel. “It was certainly a privilege to be in the same organisation with a person whose work I had admired so much as a law student, and to be able to converse and to seek insight from such a senior colleague.” Professor Hickford remembered his calm encouragement and his thoughtfulness for colleagues, as well as his incisiveness.
Other colleagues remember Justice France as a “huge sport fan, especially of racing,” says Professor McLay. “Those whose memories stretch back to the 6th floor of the Rankine Brown building will remember, on race days, the not-so-hushed-radio coming from his office on the faculty side of the library.”
Professor David McLauchlan says, “I remember talking about sport, particularly rugby. He was an ardent Auckland supporter and I supported Wellington. He was an affable and loyal colleague,” he says.
Justice France presided over notable trials including the Scott Guy murder trial and the Mark Lundy retrial that found him guilty in 2000. He also served as editor on several publications and as chair of the New Zealand Council of Legal Education. He was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2022 but retired in February 2023 due to ill-health.
In a tribute, Chief Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann said, "He was a gifted lawyer and a skilled communicator with a style which was unmistakably his own.”
The Faculty of Law extends its condolences to his wife, Supreme Court Justice Dame Ellen France, and to their whānau.