Professor Emeritus David Mullan delivers New Zealand lecture

Photo by VUW Martin Stewart

Professor Emeritus David Mullan, LLM '73, presents the 2009 Lord Cooke of Thorndon Lecture at the Victoria University of Wellington on December 3.

Professor Emeritus David Mullan, a graduate of both Queen’s (LLM ’73) and Victoria University of Wellington (LL.B., LL.M. and Hon. LL.D.) returned to his New Zealand alma mater in December to deliver the 2009 Lord Cooke of Thorndon Lecture. This annual lectureship, established in 2002 in memory of a jurist who was a not only a pioneer in administrative law and aboriginal rights, but an international influence on common law, has already become an eminent legal event on New Zealand’s calendar.

Mullan, the first Victoria graduate so far invited to present the Lord Cooke Lecture, was introduced by Law School Dean Tony Smith as “one of our most illustrious alumni.”  All but one of the previous Cooke Lecturers have been  senior judges, and have included: Lord Bingham of Cornhill, House of Lords; Arthur Chaskalson, former Chief Justice of South Africa; Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, Supreme Court of Canada; Justice Michael Kirby of the High Court of Australia; and Lord Johan Steyn of the House of Lords.

Especially considering his predecessors at the podium, Mullan calls his invitation “a great honour.” Associate Dean Mark Walters of Queen’s Law adds that besides being fellow alumni of Victoria Law, Mullan and Cooke are a fine match. Mullan’s distinguished academic career – beginning as a junior lecturer at Victoria and continuing for more than 30 years at Queen’s – focused mainly on the same field of administrative law in which Lord Cooke specialized. “Lord Cooke was a pioneer and visionary; his ideas transcended national boundaries and were influential throughout the common law world,” Walters notes, “so it is a tremendous honour, but entirely fitting, that David Mullan should be a Cooke Lecturer.”

For his topic, Mullan chose “Judicial Review of the Executive – Principled Exasperation.”

Photo by VUW Martin Stewart

Victoria Law Dean Tony Smith (right) thanks Professor Emeritus David Mullan for delivering the 2009 Lord Cooke of Thorndon Lecture.

“I thought it would be interesting to explore the extent to which the courts in both Canada and New Zealand are reluctant to engage in judicial review of decisions taken at the highest executive levels -- Cabinet and Prime Minister -- and how that gets played out in a contemporary setting where such decisions sometimes involve a contest between national security concerns and rights protected by the bills of rights of each country,” he says.

On December 3, a capacity crowd that included the Chief Justice of New Zealand and most of the judiciary, along with Victoria Law faculty, students and alumni, filled one lecture hall and required video links to a second. Their reaction confirmed he had chosen his topic well.

Among those applauding were five with Queen’s ties: Justice David Stratas, Law ‘84, newly appointed to Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal, Professor Emeritus Nadia Khalaf of Political Studies, student Alex Sadvari, Law ‘10, Justice Ellen Dolour France, LLM ‘83, of the New Zealand Court of Appeal, and Justice Simon France, LLM ‘83, of the New Zealand High Court.

For information on Professor Emeritus David Mullan’s distinguished academic career, see “New David Mullan Entrance Scholarship” on pp. 36-37 of Queen’s Law Reports 2008 at http://authoring.wp.queensu.ca/lenya/lawwww/authoring/alumni/queensLawReports/lawReports2008.pdfand “David Mullan Feted with Festschrift” on pg. 3 of Queen’s Law Reports 2007 at http://authoring.wp.queensu.ca/lenya/lawwww/authoring/alumni/queensLawReports/lawReports2007.pdf.