Bringing the law to life

Bringing the law to life

As part of its commitment to making an impact beyond the university, the AUT Law School invites a variety of distinguished speakers to share their real-world legal experiences with students.

For example, the Immigration and Refugee Law elective paper aims to give students a strong grounding in black-letter law (well-established legal rules) and the challenges inherent to daily legal practice. This year, the course's teaching component has been complemented by the involvement of special guests who shared with the students their experiences applying the law to real-world cases.

The course is taught by Deborah Manning, an adjunct lecturer at the AUT Law School. She is perhaps best known for successfully representing Ahmed Zaoui, an Algerian refugee who arrived in New Zealand in 2002 and faced a lengthy and highly publicised legal battle before being granted New Zealand citizenship in 2014.

In May 2023, Deborah invited Judge Martin Treadwell, Chair of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal, to join the class of 50 students. The tribunal hears de novo appeals concerning refugee and protected person status. That term, de novo, means the judge takes a new or fresh look at the arguments and evidence of a case as if it has never been ruled on before. Judge Treadwell discussed the history of the Refugee Convention with the class and worked through practical case examples from the fictitious land of Ambrosia.

A week later, Sophie Hendren, Refugee Status Unit (RSU) Practice Lead, took the students through key legal and practice issues involved with representing claimants at the first stage of having their refugee status determined, providing valuable insights from the decision-maker's perspective.

At the end of May 2023, former Associate Minister of Immigration, Hon Phil Twyford, joined the class by video link. His kōrero brought to life the human side of special directions, a process that allows a legal obstacle or requirement in either the Immigration Act or Immigration Regulations to be overcome through the executive power use of absolute discretion.

Deborah hopes the insights shared by the guest speakers will encourage today's law students to be tomorrow's strong legal advocates and decision-makers.

AUT Law School students warmly endorse the experiences shared by the in-class visitors. "It's wonderful," said one. "I feel really privileged to hear these guest speakers bring a 'realness' to law - they show us that you can achieve a human element to your practice."

That sentiment was echoed by another student: "The speakers' professional experiences show there is a close alignment between what is taught and what happens in the real world. That gives us confidence, knowing that what we are learning at AUT Law School will have an impact beyond our studies."

Acting Dean of AUT Law School, Mike French, applauds the Law School's approach to teaching and notes the recent visit by the US Ambassador, who spoke with students enrolled in American Politics and the Constitution.

"All courses on the AUT law degree have a focus on the application of the legal principles in practice, and to have that approach validated by our invited guests is invaluable. We are fortunate to have so many top legal minds from and beyond New Zealand generously share their time and experiences with our students."

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