My Lords, Lord Chief Justice, Chief Justice, Master of the Rolls, Justices, Attorney General, Solicitor General, Guests.
May I begin by welcoming you all to this dinner, especially our friends from New Zealand. I doubt if we have ever been privileged to have so many of New Zealand's legal leaders with us in one place as we have here tonight.
I only have a short time to speak to you this evening but it would be remiss of me not to mention the cricket. Terrific game, some great performances on both sides, but I am pleased to say that the best team won.
This dinner, as you know, is to mark an ending; but also, I want to emphasise, a new beginning. The ending is of course that of appeals from New Zealand to Her Majesty in Council, and with it the association between New Zealand and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. It is an association that goes back a long way, almost to the beginning of the Judicial Committee itself in its present form. I think I am right in saying that it is 160 years since the Supreme Court of New Zealand - Supreme Court, old style, that is - was first established, and appeals started to come to the Judicial Committee a few years later [1849].
That's 160 years worth of valuable contributions to the Judicial Committee from the judiciary of New Zealand.
Although provision was made by statute in 1895 for judges from the old dominions to be members of the Judicial Committee, it was not until 1914 that the first judge from New Zealand - Sir Joshua Williams - actually sat. By a coincidence tomorrow is the 90th anniversary of the day when he first took his place at the Board.
Today working visits by New Zealand members of the Judicial Committee are pretty frequent. Not a year goes by without at least one and sometimes two visits, and the deliberations of the Judicial Committee have been immensely enriched by their contributions.
I should like to mention two people in particular on account of the length of their service and the contribution they have made to the practice of frequent visits that has grown up. It is a great shame that they cannot be with us here tonight. One is Lord Cooke of Thorndon who by the end of his time as a member of the Judicial Committee was easily the longest-serving member of it, having first sat there in 1978. He was first a member and then President of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand; and then, after retiring from that, he came and had what he himself called a judicial Indian summer in this country, taking advantage of the fact that the retirement age here was, for him, five years higher than it was in New Zealand.
The other person to whom I should like to pay tribute is Sir Ivor Richardson, who became a member of the Judicial Committee only a year after Robin Cooke and succeeded him as President of the Court of Appeal. He first sat in the Judicial Committee in 1986 and was a regular visitor from then until his retirement from the Court of Appeal two years ago. To them and to all the members of the judiciary of New Zealand the Judicial Committee owes a great debt of gratitude.
If the British Government's traditional posture of neutrality on the matter of appeals from New Zealand to the Privy Council permits it, it is with a note of sadness that this particular professional and personal link between our judiciaries is to come to an end; but I should like to express the hope that links can be maintained in other ways, and I am sure they will be.
I should also like to pay tribute to members of the New Zealand Bar. In the great majority of appeals from New Zealand the parties are represented by New Zealand barristers who, not always reluctantly I hope, have had to make the long journey to London for the purpose. I also want to mention the hard work of the Privy Council agents. There is a small and select group of them who have handled the great majority of the business from New Zealand and they have done so with great courtesy and efficiency.
The event we are marking this evening has been foreseen for a long time. It was more than 70 years ago that legislation was passed here in Westminster enabling the dominions to abolish appeals to the Privy Council and it was more than 50 years ago that that legislation was adopted in New Zealand. Tonight we mark the final conclusion of the process that the Statute of Westminster began.
But, as I said at the beginning, this evening we are not only marking an end, but also a new beginning, that of the new Supreme Court of New Zealand whose judiciary have honoured us with their presence here tonight. May I in particular, take this opportunity to wish Chief Justice Elias well in her new role as president of the Supreme Court. Her appointment to the new final court of appeal is of great significance and immensely welcome.
Her career path is testament to her ability and excellence. As the first woman Chief Justice when appointed in 1999 she broke a final glass ceiling. I am sure that she will be as impressive in her new post as she has been throughout her illustrious career.
We ourselves in the United Kingdom have embarked on the same path of radical change, though we are little behind you. The Constitutional Reform Bill is currently being scrutinised by a Select Committee of the House of Lords.
The contribution made by the New Supreme Court of New Zealand will, I believe, be significant. The common law has moved and evolved so often in response to lights given by judgments from New Zealand. This will continue with a judiciary and a bench rightly able to make a contribution to the law both for the people of New Zealand and the people of the common law world. Their quality is undoubted.
We all have building issues. Your opening period will be spent in the Old Wooden Building in Wellington with the law school- I'm not sure if that is modern values in a traditional setting, or traditional values in a modern setting. Whatever the answer to that it looks a sensible start - perhaps better than the Kate Sheppard Apartments.
It is therefore with a certain fellow feeling that we offer our warmest good wishes for the new Supreme Court of New Zealand when it opens its doors for business on the 1st of July.