Foreign Judges in the Pacific

"This book explores the use of foreign judges on courts of constitutional jurisdiction in the Pacific. We often assume that the judges sitting on domestic courts will be citizens. However across the island states of the Pacific, over three-quarters of all judges are foreign judges who regularly adjudicate questions of constitutional, legal and social importance. This has implications for constitutional adjudication, judicial independence and the representative qualities of judges and judiciaries. The book focuses on the use of foreign judges in the nine independent Commonwealth states of the Pacific: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Drawing together detailed empirical research, legal analysis and constitutional theory, it traces how foreign judges bring different dimensions of knowledge to bear on adjudication and face distinctive burdens on their independence. It argues that nationality serves to connect judges to the people and the state, such that foreign judges are not readily understood as representatives of the people or the state, but rather as representatives of a profession. Foreign Judges in the Pacific sheds light on widespread but often unarticulated assumptions about the significance of nationality to the functions and qualities of constitutional judges. It shows how the nationality of judges matters, not only for the Pacific courts that use foreign judges but for legal and theoretical scholarship on courts and judging."--