New Zealand Executive Government News Release Archive

The Minister of Justice, Hon D.A.M. Graham, today announced the appointment of Hon Justice (William) David Baragwanath as a Commissioner and President of the Law Commission.

Justice Baragwanath takes up the three-year appointment on 2 October, 1996.

He replaces Hon Justice John Wallace who has been Acting President since Sir Kenneth Keiths appointment to the Court of Appeal in April.

Justice Wallace is retiring from the Law Commission. He will continue as President of the Electoral Commission.

Justice Baragwanath graduated from the University of Auckland with an LLB in 1964. From 1964 to 1966 he was a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, where he received a 1st class BCL degree. He was awarded a Fulbright Travel Award to the University of Virginia in 1983.

Justice Baragwanath was appointed to the High Court in Auckland in December 1995. prior to that he was a leading constitutional and commercial barrister. He was appointed a Queens Counsel in 1983.