SAL Annual Lecture 2024: Oceans Apart? New Zealand’s Place in the Common Law Family

The Rt Hon Dame Helen Winkelmann

Chief Justice of New Zealand 

The Rt Hon Dame Helen Winkelmann is New Zealand’s 13th Chief Justice.

After a career in commercial litigation the Chief Justice was appointed a High Court Judge in 2004, Chief High Court Judge in 2010, and to the Court of Appeal in 2015, before being appointed Chief Justice in 2018.

Chief Justice Winkelmann was the New Zealand representative on the Board of the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration until October 2020, and from November 2012 to November 2019 was Chair of Te Kura Kaiwhakawā | the Institute of Judicial Studies – the body responsible for providing continued education to judges. The Chief Justice has been an active supporter of judicial education in the Pacific region, and currently heads up the Pacific Justice Sector Programme, a programme funded by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and directed at supporting access to justice and the rule of law in the Pacific. As Chief Justice, she has identified facilitating access to justice, connecting the courts to the community, and supporting a representative and diverse judiciary as her priorities.