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Wednesday 27 October 2021 11:32am

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Otago Faculty of Law academics and a former student have scooped three of four 2020 Legal Research Foundation Awards.

Dr Maria Hook (above, left) and co-author Jack Wass were joint winners of the JF Northey Memorial Book Award for their book The Conflict of Laws in New Zealand (published by LexisNexis in 2020).

Dr Hook’s primary research area is the conflict of laws, also known as private international law, which is the law dealing with the cross-border aspects of civil claims and proceedings.

Wass practises civil litigation with an emphasis on commercial disputes, arbitration, and private and public international law at Wellington’s Stout Street Chambers. The book is the first comprehensive treatise on the conflict of laws in New Zealand.

Otago academic Dr Anna High and Napier-based barrister and mediator Caroline Hickman were co-recipients of the Sir Ian Barker Published Article Award for "The Any Evidence Rule in New Zealand Family Law".

The adjudicator of the award described the article as an “outstanding piece of work which perfectly meets the criteria of the competition rules.”

Jacobi Te Hingatu Kohu-Morris (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Ranginui), who graduated from Otago last year, received the Unpublished Undergraduate Student Paper Award for his piece "Ko Wai Te Mana Whenua? Identifying Mana Whenua Under Aotearoa New Zealand's Three Laws".

Last year Kohu-Morris won the National Kaupapa Māori Moot competition. He is now a judges’ clerk at the Court of Appeal in Wellington.

Founded in 1965, the Legal Research Foundation is a body affiliated with the Faculty of Law of the University of Auckland. It is an independent, non-profit organisation that fosters legal research and links between the legal profession and the University. It publishes the New Zealand Law Review.

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