The future of law in the South Pacific

Abstract

The title of this paper is somewhat grandiose. However, I do not pretend to offer clear direction as to the future of South Pacific law. Instead the title is drawn from a final year LLB subject, Current Developments in Pacific Law. In this subject one of the activities to close the course is for students to offer short speeches on the future of law in the Pacific. My contribution in this activity is easy: to listen to what my students say. After all, the future of law in the South Pacific is not in my hands, or even the hands of the University of the South Pacific (USP) School of Law. Instead it is in the hands of our law students, who will go out to different countries, take up a variety of positions, and, hopefully, contribute to law reform and legal development in their own jurisdictions. This paper is therefore drawn from my students’ work, words and thoughts.1 It offers an introduction to some of the “big” debate about legal systems in Pacific island countries and discusses one of the frameworks that students at USP use to help analyse this debate. As this conference provides an opportunity for sharing between USP and Otago University, this paper will first begin with a few comments on the differences between law in Pacific island countries as compared to law in New Zealand.