Jane Kelsey

Last updated

Jane Kelsey
Rhodes Forum 2014 (15881849961).jpg
Jane Kelsey at Rhodes Forum 2014
Education Doctor of Philosophy   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Alma mater
Employer
Awards
  • Global award (2020)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Position held professor, professor emeritus (2021)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Elizabeth Jane Kelsey is a New Zealand academic and activist who has promoted critical examination of the relationship between social, political and economic issues and how these can impact on human rights and justice. Specifically, within the New Zealand context, she has advocated public policy positions on colonialism and te Tiriti Waitangi, globalisation and neoliberalism, and the role of universities as public institutions. She has published widely on these and other issues, and in 2020 won the Global category of the New Zealand Women of Influence Award. Kelsey was professor of law at the University of Auckland until her retirement in 2022.

Contents

Education

Jane Kelsey has an LL.B. (Hons) from Victoria University of Wellington, BCL from Oxford University, MPhil from the University of Cambridge. [1] In 1991 she completed a PhD from the University of Auckland, titled Rogernomics and the Treaty of Waitangi: the contradiction between the economic and Treaty policies of the fourth Labour government, 1984-1990, and the role of law in mediating that contradiction in the interests of the colonial capitalist state. [2] She has worked at the University of Auckland since 1979 and was appointed to a personal Chair in Law in 1997.

Associations

She is a key member of the Action Resource Education Network of Aotearoa (Arena), and is actively involved in researching and speaking out against the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, free trade and corporate-led globalisation. [3] She is also actively involved in campaigning for the New Zealand Government's full recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi and opposed the controversial seabed and foreshore legislation.

Kelsey is an outspoken critic of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks, of which New Zealand is a part. [4]

Kelsey took part in demonstrations over the 1981 Springbok tour. [5]

In 2020, Kelsey won the Global category of the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards. [6]

See also

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of New Zealand</span>

The human history of New Zealand can be dated back to between 1320 and 1350 CE, when the main settlement period started, after it was discovered and settled by Polynesians, who developed a distinct Māori culture. Like other Pacific cultures, Māori society was centred on kinship links and connection with the land but, unlike them, it was adapted to a cool, temperate environment rather than a warm, tropical one.

Rogernomics were the neoliberal economic reforms promoted by Roger Douglas, the Minister of Finance between 1984 and 1988 in the Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand. Rogernomics featured market-led restructuring and deregulation and the control of inflation through tight monetary policy, accompanied by a floating exchange-rate and reductions in the fiscal deficit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Waitangi</span> 1840 treaty between British Crown and people of New Zealand

The Treaty of Waitangi, sometimes referred to as Te Tiriti, is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the treatment of the Māori people in New Zealand by successive governments and the wider population, something that has been especially prominent from the late 20th century. The treaty document is an agreement, not a treaty as recognised in international law, and has no independent legal status, being legally effective only to the extent it is recognised in various statutes. It was first signed on 6 February 1840 by Captain William Hobson as consul for the British Crown and by Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand.

The New Zealand Labour Party, also known simply as Labour, is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers describe Labour as social-democratic and pragmatic in practice. The party participates in the international Progressive Alliance. It is one of two major political parties in New Zealand, alongside its traditional rival, the National Party.

Closing the Gaps was a policy of the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand for assisting socio-economically disadvantaged Māori and Pasifika ethnic groups in New Zealand through specially targeted social programmes. The phrase "Closing the Gaps" was a slogan of the Labour Party in the 1999 election campaign and was implemented as a policy initiative in the 2000 Budget.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Busby</span> Scottish/Australian/New Zealand wine farmer and politician

James Busby was the British Resident in New Zealand from 1833 to 1840. He was involved in drafting the 1835 Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand and the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. As British Resident, he acted as New Zealand's first jurist and the "originator of law in Aotearoa", to whom New Zealand "owes almost all of its underlying jurisprudence". Busby is regarded as the father of the Australian wine industry, as he brought the first collection of vine stock from Spain and France to Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Douglas</span> New Zealand politician

Sir Roger Owen Douglas is a retired New Zealand politician who served as a minister in two Labour governments. He became best known for his prominent role in New Zealand's radical economic restructuring in the 1980s, when the Fourth Labour Government's economic policy became known as "Rogernomics".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ngāpuhi</span> Māori iwi in New Zealand

Ngāpuhi is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland regions of New Zealand centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Wilson</span> New Zealand politician

Margaret Anne Wilson is a New Zealand lawyer, academic and former Labour Party politician. She served as Attorney-General from 1999 to 2005 and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2005 to 2008, during the Fifth Labour Government.

David Vernon Williams is a professor, and former deputy dean of the University of Auckland's Faculty of Law. He comes from the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand, and was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School.

Claims and settlements under the Treaty of Waitangi have been a significant feature of New Zealand politics since the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and the Waitangi Tribunal that was established by that act to hear claims. Successive governments have increasingly provided formal legal and political opportunity for Māori to seek redress for what are seen as breaches by the Crown of guarantees set out in the Treaty of Waitangi. While it has resulted in putting to rest a number of significant longstanding grievances, the process has been subject to criticisms including those who believe that the redress is insufficient to compensate for Māori losses. The settlements are typically seen as part of a broader Māori Renaissance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mai Chen</span> New Zealand constitutional lawyer

Mai Chen is a New Zealand and Harvard educated lawyer with a professional and specialist focus in constitutional and administrative law, Waitangi tribunal and courts, human rights, white collar fraud and regulatory defence, judicial review, regulatory issues, education law, and public policy and law reform. Chen is a barrister and holds an office in the Public Law Toolbox Chambers. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Auckland School of Law. Having served previously in the university's Business School. Chen is also the Chair of New Zealand Asian Leaders, SUPERdiverse WOMEN and the Superdiversity Institute for Law, Policy and Business. She is married to Dr John Sinclair and the two have one son.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Bassett</span> New Zealand politician

Michael Edward Rainton Bassett is a former Labour Party member of the New Zealand House of Representatives and cabinet minister in the reformist fourth Labour government. He is also a noted New Zealand historian, and has published a number of books on New Zealand politics, including biographies of Prime Ministers Peter Fraser, Gordon Coates and Joseph Ward.

The Fourth Labour Government of New Zealand governed New Zealand from 26 July 1984 to 2 November 1990. It was the first Labour government to win a second consecutive term since the First Labour Government of 1935 to 1949. The policy agenda of the Fourth Labour Government differed significantly from that of previous Labour governments: it enacted major social reforms and economic reforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudia Orange</span> New Zealand historian

Dame Claudia Josepha Orange is a New Zealand historian best known for her 1987 book The Treaty of Waitangi, which won 'Book of the Year' at the Goodman Fielder Wattie Book Award in 1988.

The Māori protest movement is a broad indigenous rights movement in New Zealand. While there was a range of conflicts between Māori and European immigrants prior to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the signing provided one reason for protesting. Disagreements in the decades following the signing sometimes included war.

Margaret Shirley Mutu is a Ngāti Kahu leader, author and academic from Karikari, New Zealand and works at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is Māori and her iwi (tribes) are Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa and Ngāti Whātua.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in New Zealand</span> Overview of the status of women in New Zealand

Women in New Zealand are women who live in or are from New Zealand. Notably New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world where women were entitled to vote. In recent times New Zealand has had many women in top leadership and government roles, including three female Prime Ministers, most recently Jacinda Ardern.

The New Zealand Journal of History is an academic journal covering the history of New Zealand. It has been published by the University of Auckland since 1967.

Richard Stephen Hill, Emeritus Professor, is a New Zealand historian who worked as a public servant before becoming an academic. As a member of the Waitangi Tribunal he played a role in the reconciliation process between the Crown and Māori that led to the Crown’s acceptance of indigenous concepts of history as a basis for political practice, enabling Aotearoa New Zealand to emerge in the late 20th century from its 19th century colonial origins.

References

  1. "From doctoral students to donkeys". University of Auckland. 26 July 2022. Archived from the original on 27 July 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
  2. Kelsey, Jane (1991). Rogernomics and the Treaty of Waitangi: the contradiction between the economic and Treaty policies of the fourth Labour government, 1984-1990, and the role of law in mediating that contradiction in the interests of the colonial capitalist state (Doctoral thesis). ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland. hdl:2292/2871.
  3. Calder, Peter (15 November 2003). "Jane Kelsey". New Zealand Listener. Archived from the original on 23 February 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  4. Satherly, Dan (14 November 2013). "Time to release full TPP text - Kelsey". Newshub. Archived from the original on 2 August 2022.
  5. "NZ academic has trouble entering Australia". Otago Daily Times Online News. 16 November 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  6. "Dr Siouxsie Wiles supreme winner at Stuff-Westpac 2020 Women of Influence Awards". Stuff. 17 November 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2020.