Bill Hastings (judge)
Bill Hastings | |
---|---|
10th Chief Censor of New Zealand | |
In office October 1999 – July 2010 | |
Preceded by | Kathryn Paterson |
Succeeded by | Andrew Jack |
8th Chief Justice of Kiribati | |
Assumed office August 2021 | |
Preceded by | Sir John Muria |
Personal details | |
Born | William Kenneth Hastings Scarborough, Ontario, Canada |
Education | Lord Roberts Public School |
Alma mater | Midland Avenue Collegiate Institute |
Signature | |
William Kenneth Hastings (born 1957) was
Biography
Born in
Role as Chief Censor
In 1998, he was appointed Deputy Chief Censor at the
In 2002, Hastings appeared in the public eye when he made censorship decisions on highly controversial films, particularly Baise-moi and Visitor Q, both of which were scheduled for screening at the Beck's Incredible Film Festival. In 2003, Hastings again appeared in the public eye when the computer game Manhunt was banned by his office, making its possession in New Zealand illegal. Following a meeting in Toronto on 22 December 2003 between Hastings and officials from the Ontario Ministry of Consumer and Business Services, Manhunt became the first computer game in Ontario to be classified as a film and restricted to adults in February 2004.
The
Apart from his professional role, some have taken issue with one aspect of his personal life in particular: Hastings is openly homosexual.[11]
Judicial career
On 21 June 2010, Hastings was appointed a District Court Judge and Chair of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal. Hastings was sworn in at Wellington on 9 July 2010.[12] In April 2013 he was succeeded as Chairperson of the Tribunal by Judge Carrie Wainwright and began sitting full-time as a District Court judge.[13] From 2015 to 2021 he presided over the Special Circumstances Court in Wellington,[14] a therapeutic court aiming to address the underlying causes of offending,[15] an approach that underpins the Te Ao Mārama vision[16] of the New Zealand District Court.[17]
On 9 August 2021, Hastings was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Republic of Kiribati.[18] Chief Justice Hastings was seconded from the District Court of New Zealand for a period of three and a half years. He is the first openly gay person to become the Chief Justice of any country.
On 11 November 2021, Chief Justice Hastings overturned the Kiribati government's attempt to limit the term of another Kiribati High Court judge, Justice Lambourne, declaring the Government's actions unconstitutional.[19]
On 30 June 2022, just as he was about to hear an appeal relating to further actions by the Kiribati government with respect to Justice Lambourne, he was abruptly suspended from his functions of Chief Justice by order of the President of Kiribati Taneti Maamau, creating a constitutional crisis.[20] After the Court of Appeal upheld Chief Justice Hastings' judgment, all three of its members were also suspended. Hastings resigned as Chief Justice of Kiribati on 6 December 2022.
On 3 July 2023, Hastings was sworn in as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Vanuatu.
See also
References
- Department of Internal Affairs. 1 August 2002. Archived from the originalon 13 February 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
- ^ "Who we are". Broadcasting Standards Authority. Archived from the original on 17 January 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2020.
- ^ Kiribati Chief Justice Appointed, 10 August 2021
- ^ MJS Bios judicialstudies.duke.edu
- ^ "The structure and staff". Office of Film and Literature Classification. 6 April 2010. Archived from the original on 3 June 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
- ^ Guy, Nathan (21 June 2010). "New Chief Censor to be appointed". New Zealand Government. Archived from the original on 12 July 2010. Retrieved 4 July 2010.
- ^ Jack, Andrew Robert (1 January 1992). Cultural Relativity, Human Rights and the International Regulation of Broadcasting (Doctoral thesis). Open Access Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington.
- Scoop.co.nz, 15 November 2005, archivedfrom the original on 30 September 2007, retrieved 1 November 2007
- ^ "Censorship-appeal stats". Victoria – University of Wellington. 10 November 2006. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
- ^ "Censorship Stats". Kiwiblog. 12 November 2006. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
- ^ "Lobby group slams Censor's 'gay agenda'", GayNZ.com, 14 October 2007, archived from the original on 15 October 2007, retrieved 1 November 2007
- ^ New District Court Judge and Chair of Immigration and Protection Tribunal Appointed, 21 June 2010, archived from the original on 27 July 2010, retrieved 24 June 2010
- ^ "New Immigration and Protection Tribunal Chair appointed". beehive.govt.nz. 27 February 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
- ^ Special Circumstances Court, 27 July 2021, archived from the original on 27 January 2021, retrieved 27 July 2021
- ^ Inside a court targeting the cause not just the crime, 29 May 2021
- ^ "Te Ao Mārama | New Zealand Ministry of Justice".
- ^ Vision of a new District Court where everyone's words are heard, 18 January 2021
- ^ Kiribati Chief Justice Appointed, 10 August 2021, archived from the original on 13 August 2021, retrieved 10 August 2021
- ^ "Republic v Lambourne [2021] KIHC 8; Civil Case 16 of 2021 (11 November 2021)". Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute.
- TheGuardian.com. July 2022.
External links
- Bill Hastings at IMDb