Supreme Court criticism

Phil Taylor in the NZ Herald has a lengthy article about criticisms of the Supreme Court.

I blogged a few months ago on this topic, after the Court Report did an episode on it.

Farmer is another who says expert commercial judges are needed and the Law Commission has noted, as part of its review of the law underpinning the courts, that such concerns exist “in the commercial community”. It suggests expert panels be set up, while Attorney-General Chris Finlayson recently said “there is much to be said for some specialisation in the High Court”.

The Law Commission, however, has indicated many judges are against it and senior barristers have told the Herald that Chief Justice Sian Elias is opposed to formal specialisation and expects every judge to have broad competence.

Specialisation seems a very sensible idea to me. It won’t solve all the issues about the Supreme Court, but it will be beneficial at lower courts, and over time may flow through to the Supreme Court.