Foreign Judges in the Pacific

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This book explores the use of foreign judges on courts of constitutional jurisdiction in 9 Pacific states: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. We often assume that the judges sitting on domestic courts will be citizens. However across the island states of the Pacific, over three-quarters of all judges are foreign judges who regularly hear cases of constitutional, legal and social importance. This has implications for constitutional adjudication, judicial independence and the representative qualities of judges and judiciaries. Drawing together detailed empirical research, legal analysis and constitutional theory, it traces how foreign judges bring different dimensions of knowledge to bear on adjudication, face distinctive burdens on their independence, and hold only an attenuated connection to the state and its people. It shows how foreign judges have come to be understood as representatives of a transnational profession, with its own transferrable judicial skills and values. Foreign Judges in the Pacific sheds light on the widespread but often unarticulated assumptions about the significance of nationality to the functions and qualities of constitutional judges. It shows how the nationality of judges matters, not only for the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Pacific courts that use foreign judges, but for legal and theoretical scholarship on courts and judging.

Reviews

Anna Dziedzics well-researched study provides important insights not only into its express topic, described in its title, but also into broad questions about constitutional law and theory. Though the practice she analyzes is interesting but might seem of limited scope, in fact her arguments lead the reader to think more about what exactly constitutional interpretation is and how it relates to a nations people. * Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law emeritus, Harvard Law School *

Author Bio

Anna Dziedzic is Global Academic Fellow, Law Faculty, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.