What is LEANZ?
LEANZ is an organisation dedicated to the advancement in New Zealand of the understanding of law and economics. It provides a forum for the exchange of information, analysis and ideas amongst those with an interest in this form of analysis. That interest may be practical (for example, the field of law and economics is very relevant to many aspects of the practice of law, public policy and consultancy), or it may be more academic.
Lawyers may benefit from obtaining a greater understanding of economic analysis as applied to the law. Economic principles can provide a coherent structure for tying together diverse areas of law. Economists can obtain a better understanding of the importance of legal and constitutional issues and the complexity and subtlety of the common law. Case law provides economists with a vast pool of interesting puzzles.
Members of LEANZ include:
- Lawyers;
- Economists;
- Policy advisers;
- Academics;
- Students;
- Corporate members and donors.
Charitable status
LEANZ is a registered charity: our registration number is CC42678. LEANZ was founded in 1994 as an incorporated society.
Our overall objectives include:
Communicating and disseminating information in New Zealand about law and economics literature and research, and promoting its application to legal and public policy issues in New Zealand and overseas; Enhancing understanding of law and economics in New Zealand amongst legal, economic and other relevant professions, including academia, the private sector and government; and Fostering teaching, research, publication and education about law and economics in New Zealand.
Our specific goals include:
- Increasing general awareness of Law and Economics — identifying, disseminating and promoting the value that L&E can provide.
- Closing the gaps between lawyers and economists — increasing dialogue between the two groups, increasing mutual recognition of professions.
- Increasing the value of the LEANZ brand — providing value for money for membership including becoming a repository for L&E information and increasing networking opportunities for members.
- Having sufficient resources to meet our objectives.
- Increasing the understanding of economics by the legal community.
- Greater attention to the educational aspects of the objectives.
Role of LEANZ
LEANZ’s objectives are to:
- Promote the understanding of law and economics in New Zealand. Law and economics refers to an approach to legal (regulatory or policy) analysis which uses an economic framework focussed on efficiency of outcomes and the incentives on the subjects of the rule or policy in question. This includes an analysis of the significance of legal instruments and institutions in creating or moulding such incentives.
- Encompass a wide range of disciplines and legal or regulatory subject areas.
- Ensure the scholarship it promotes is relevant to current policy and regulatory debate in New Zealand.
How we advance our objective: seminar program and other vehicles
Practically, LEANZ’s principal means of furthering our objective is convening monthly seminars on topics and themes which approach legal, regulatory or policy issues using an economics framework, or specifically address the failings of such an analysis.
We foster free and open discussion and respectful debate of ideas in our seminars.
We aim to ensure our seminars are topical and relevant to current policy and legal debate in New Zealand. Where possible, we aim to provide balance (via panel discussions or presenting pro/contra viewpoints at different seminars). In doing so, we try to introduce a law and economics perspective to this debate.
Our seminars provide a forum for lawyers and economists to share perspectives on topics of current interest. We acknowledge the material support that our sponsor law firms provide us, and without whom we would not be able to deliver the seminar program. Therefore, we have particular regard for topics or speakers who are of interest to the legal community.
We will also aim to take advantage of opportunities that arise from time to time to promote our objectives, for instance the essay competition and Visiting Scholar program.
Our History
The beginnings of LEANZ trace to a seminar presentation in April 1993 by Sir Ivor Richardson (then of the Court of Appeal), hosted by the Law Commission, on Law and Economics. Out of that event followed discussions around the idea for an organisation to develop and promote what was, at that time, often seen as a peculiarly North American approach to legal analysis.
Sir Kenneth Keith and Richard Sutton at the Law Commission were early supporters and luminaries, as was Adrienne von Tunzelmann at the Department of Justice, and Alan Bollard (then Chair of the Commerce Commission).
During early 1994 over 60 people, representing a balance of legal and economic and public and private sector backgrounds, expressed positive interest in the activities of a Law and Economics Association.
Minutes of the Inaugural Meeting of LEANZ, held on 11 April 1994 at the Law Commission, record those present as: Terence Arnold; Wayne Attrill; Tony Baldwin; George Barker; Warwick Bignall; Alan Bollard; Brendan Brown; Hamish Dempster; Brian Easton; David Harper; Victoria Heine; Tracy Mears; Matthew Palmer; Bernard Robertson; Richard Sutton; Adrienne von Tunzelmann.
The inaugural committee of 1994 included as officers and organising members of LEANZ:
President: Alan Bollard
Secretary: Matthew Palmer
Treasurer: Peter Gorringe
Committee: Wayne Attrill, George Barker, Richard Sutton, Adrienne von Tunzelmann, Terence Arnold, Brendon Brown, and Charles Rickett.
Matthew Palmer, and Stephen Franks were instrumental in getting a group together to meet in the early days and, as evidence of LEANZ’s longevity and relevance, have returned to be actively involved in recent times. Terence Arnold, now a judge of the Supreme Court, is the current Patron. Our Patron for the best part of 20 years, Sir Ivor Richardson, sadly passed away in December 2014.
LEANZ Committee
Richard Meade
Iwan Pieterse
Georgia Callaghan
Peter Wilson
Kevin Counsell
Brett Woods
Daniel
Watt
Jenna Bernstein
Sophie Clarke
Bronwyn Taylor
LEANZ Fellows
Members of LEANZ can apply for election to the Fellowship. Fellows are entitled to use the post-nominal initials LEANZF.
The two main requirements for Fellowship are:- Five years’ membership of LEANZ; and
- Publication of 100,000 words which advance the study or understanding of law and economics issues in or with reference to New Zealand.
- New Fellows are elected by the current Fellows, after submitting their portfolio of work.
There are currently twelve Fellows of LEANZ:
Bryce Wilkinson, of Wellington who after a career at Treasury is now a private sector economic and policy analyst. Bryce has served on government advisory bodies and published numerous policy papers. Bryce is a former President of LEANZ and is now the Senior Fellow, representing the interests of Fellows and co-ordinating the Fellowship as a group.
Professor Lew Evans, Victoria University of Wellington. Lew has taught and written on law and economics at Victoria for many years and has also written numerous papers on property rights and on competition and regulatory policy matters.
Bronwyn Howell, Victoria University of Wellington. Bronwyn is now the director of the New Zealand Institute for the study of Competition and Regulation. She was formerly an academic at VUW and has written many papers on regulatory matters as well as on health policy.
Professor John Prebble, Victoria University of Wellington, is New Zealand’s leading academic tax lawyer and has published widely on conceptual and policy matters in taxation and served on government review and advisory groups.
Kerrin Vautier CMG Kerrin is well-known for her teaching of and writing on competition law; she is currently a research economist; a Lay Member of the High Court; a Director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand; and a Trustee of Chamber Music New Zealand.
Alan Woodfield, the University of Canterbury, has taught law and economics at Canterbury for many years and has a wide range of publications covering intellectual property, health and safety in employment, school competition and other issues.
George Barker, the Australian National University,
was one of the founders of LEANZ and was formerly the director of the Law and Economics Consulting Group in New Zealand. George is currently the director of the Centre for Law and Economics at ANU and has published widely on law and economics matters ranging from competition law to cultural capital.
Michael Littlewood, the University of Auckland, specialises in tax. In addition to New Zealand tax, his work has mostly been in the areas of Hong Kong tax, Chinese tax, international tax, comparative tax, tax planning, tax policy, the politics of taxation, tax history and constitutional aspects of taxation. His work has been published in the US, the UK, Hong Kong, China, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.
Hon Justice Matthew Palmer is a High Court Judge in Wellington. He has previously held senior positions in the public service and in academia. He has a BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of Canterbury, and LLB (Hons) (1st) from Victoria, and an LLM and JSD from Yale Law School. He has written numerous articles and several books, and was the Founding Secretary of LEANZ.
Stuart Birks, Massey University, Director of the Centre for Public Policy Evaluation, has researched and taught in areas of economic policy and policy implementation, including the formulation and implementation of law, economic approaches to litigation and the law as a service industry. Given the significance of rhetoric, as in Adam Smith’s “deliberative eloquence” and “judicial eloquence”, this has required development and use of pluralistic economic methodologies.
In Memoriam-Professor David Mayes, University of Auckland. David was a Professor of Banking and Finance. He was a past Director of the Europe Institute and is a Co-director of the New Zealand Governance Centre, both at the University of Auckland. He researches on international banking and financial regulation, and previously advised the Board of the Bank of Finland. He is an editor of the Economic Journal, and has written numerous books, articles and book chapters.
Dr James Every-Palmer KC is a barrister in Wellington. He has honours degrees in law and economics from the University of Otago, an LLM from Harvard Law School and a D.Phil from the University of Oxford. His main areas of practice are competition law, market design and economic regulation.