It is with sadness that we acknowledge the passing on 9 July of Professor Bruce Harris, a former Dean of Te Kaupeka Tātai Ture - Faculty of Law at Otago.
A graduate of Otago and Harvard University, Bruce was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand in 1976 and practiced as a litigation lawyer for two years.
Bruce then spent 17 years researching and teaching Law at Otago and, in 1989, was appointed Dean and Head of Department of Law.
Professor Bruce Harris
He is remembered as a gifted and supportive teacher, and a highly regarded colleague and friend. Many current members of the Bench and profession were once his students and his influence on New Zealand law is significant.
The current Dean of Law at the University of Otago, Associate Professor Bridgette Toy-Cronin, paid tribute to Bruce, describing him as a cherished colleague and friend whose presence is still deeply felt within the Faculty.
“Although Bruce spent the latter part of his career at Auckland Law School, to us at Otago, he never truly left. His legacy, warmth, and intellect remain woven into the fabric of our community. We mourn his passing with heavy hearts and extend our aroha to his whānau, friends, and colleagues. Kua hinga te tōtara i Te Waonui-a-Tāne,” Bridgette says.
Following his time at Otago, Bruce was Dean of Law and Head of Department at the University of Auckland from 1995-2000, where he remained until his retirement.
Bruce’s research interests were in constitutional and administrative law. The capstone to his career was the publication in 2018 of his text, New Zealand Constitution: An Analysis in Terms of Principles, which drew together his more than 40 years of scholarship and teaching into one insightful and authoritative tome.
Bruce was awarded an LLD from Otago in 2011, for ‘published original contributions of special excellence in the history, philosophy, exposition or criticism of law’.
All the pieces in the collection that Bruce submitted for examination for the LLD are concerned with the exercise of constitutional power, ranging across the legal sources of the power vested in each of the three branches of government, the legal mechanisms facilitating the accountability of the executive and the judiciary, and the possible design of the legal underpinning of New Zealand’s future constitutional arrangements.
One of Bruce’s former students, Associate Professor Edward Willis, himself now a member of the Law Faculty at Otago, remembers him as an amazing and supportive teacher whose influence on New Zealand law is difficult to over-state.
“Bruce was my PhD supervisor, and I got to know him quite well. The proudest I have ever seen him was when he was awarded an LLD from Otago in 2011 - an institution that always stayed close to his heart," Ed says.
Following his retirement, the respect in which his scholarship was held was marked by the publication in 2022 of a Festschrift titled Pragmatism, Principle and Power in Common Law Constitutional Systems: Essays in Honour of Bruce Harris. This text was co-edited by Associate Professor Willis and, reflecting Bruce’s ongoing connection with Otago, contained several chapters from current and former Faculty members.
Bruce will be very much missed; our thoughts are with his whānau, friends and colleagues.