BEN KEITH

Ben Keith joined the independent bar in 2017 following private practice, a significant period as Crown Counsel with the New Zealand Crown Law Office and a statutory appointment as the first Deputy Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. He has conducted proceedings at all levels of the New Zealand courts, including the Supreme Court and Privy Council; the Waitangi Tribunal; the courts of Samoa and Tokelau; and before United Nations fora, as well as undertaking, assisting or appearing before numerous public inquiries.

Ben works with individual, non-governmental, iwi, corporate and public sector clients in advice and proceedings across broad range of public law issues: administrative and constitutional law; asylum and extradition; privacy, information and data protection; inquiries and compliance; legislation and law reform; national and international human rights; national security law; public and, on occasion, private international law, including international family law; obligations under te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi; and a wide range of regulatory, investigative and other significant powers.

email contact@benkeith.co.nz

web https://www.benkeith.co.nz

Qualifications

Victoria University of Wellington, LLB(Hons), BA

Admitted New Zealand (1998); Tokelau (2018); Samoa (2021)

Recent / notable cases

Defence of a highly complex application for extradition to the People’s Republic of China before the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and United Nations Human Rights Committee: Kim v Minister of Justice [2019] NZCA 209, [2019] 3 NZLR 173; Minister of Justice v Kim (No 1) [2021] 1 NZLR 338, [2021] NZSC 57; (No 2) [2022] NZSC 44; Kim v New Zealand, CCPR 4170/2022

Conduct of constitutional proceedings necessary for the peaceful transfer of power to the newly elected government of Samoa: FAST Party v Attorney General [2021] WSSC 24; Electoral Commissioner v FAST Party [2021] WSCA 1-5; Attorney General v Latu & ors [2021] WSSC 31; [2021] WSSC 34 & [2021] WSCA 6

Successful application for reinstatement of iwi excluded from Waitangi Tribunal inquiry: Raukawa Settlement Trust v Waitangi Tribunal [2019] NZHC 383; [2019] 3 NZLR 722

Conduct of the first New Zealand judicial review proceeding conducted under “closed material” procedures: A v Minister of Internal Affairs [2018] 3 NZLR 583; [2020] NZHC 2782; [2022] NZCA 257

First successful appeal since at least 2003 in proceedings under the Hague Abduction Convention, resulting in change in approach/procedure in such cases: LRR v COL [2020] NZCA 209, [2020] NZFLR 98, [2020] 2 NZLR 610

Significant proceedings under the Privacy Acts 1993/2020: Te Pou Matakana Ltd v Attorney-General (No 1) [2022] 2 NZLR 148, [2021] NZHC 2942; Te Pou Matakana Ltd v Attorney-General (No 2) [2022] 2 NZLR 178, [2021] NZHC 3319; Dotcom v Attorney-General [2020] NZCA 551

First successful contested application for declarations of inconsistency with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990: Chisnall v Attorney-General [2020] 2 NZLR 110, [2019] NZHC 3126; Attorney-General v Chisnall [2021] NZCA 616; [2022] NZCA 24; Attorney-General v Chisnall [2022] NZSC 77 (pending)

Inquiries:

  • counsel before public inquiries including Royal Commission on Abuse in Care

  • special advisor to the Inquiry into Operation Burnham

  • contributions to numerous inquiries by Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security

Recent publications / presentations

Administrative law

“Current developments in judicial review” CLE seminar, Auckland/Wellington, March 2019 and June 2022

“Four very different judgments: extradition to the People’s Republic of China” invited faculty seminar, Canterbury University, June 2022; also forthcoming in Transnational Criminal Law Review

Good decision making in public law annual half-day CLE workshop 2019-

Also member, New Zealand Law Society Public and Administrative law reform committee, 2018-

Constitutional law

“Change of government and the courts: what lessons for New Zealand from the 2021 Samoa constitutional crisis?” Centre for Public Law, Victoria University (forthcoming)

“Rights and obligations in public law: human rights, international law and te Tiriti” New Zealand Law Society CLE September 2021 (with Elana Geddis and Matthew Smith)

“Public lawyers in small places” invited paper to Government Legal Network, 2017

“Seeing the world whole: Understanding the citation of external sources in judicial reasoning” (2008) 6 NZJPIL 95

Human rights law

“The impact of the Bill of Rights Act on the exercise of public law powers” Human Rights Law Update seminar, October 2021

“New Zealand and the Universal Periodic Review: where are we and what to do next?” Government Law Year in Review, New Zealand Centre for Public Law, February 2019

“Miller v New Zealand: Lost in translation?” New Zealand Centre for Public Law, June 2018

“Between ‘great weight’, ‘excessive pretensions’ and ‘statements of no value’: United Nations human rights treaty bodies, national courts and the rule of international human rights law” International Organisations and the Rule of Law: Perils and Promise, New Zealand Centre for Public Law December 2015

“Using the Universal Periodic Review: A View from Practice” invited paper for Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand Human Rights Conference 2013

Public and private international law

“International, comparative and foreign law before the New Zealand courts” Legalwise CLE September 2020; Crown Law Office, October 2020; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, October 2020

“National and international tribunals and coherence in international law: fragmentation, managerialism, convergence, constitutionalisation – or irrelevance?” 26th ANZSIL Conference, July 2018

“International human rights law together or apart” Sustaining the International Legal Order in an Era of Rising Nationalism Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law July 2017

Also co-chair, 26th Annual Conference Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (2018);

National security law

“Upholding the rule of law in counter-terrorism” invited lecture to Victoria University of Wellington honours/masters course, April 2021

“The (more) public life of secret law” lecture to Australian Centre for Military and Security Law, June 2017; also to New Zealand Centre for Public Law, September 2017

 “A partly outside job? The potential of transnational legal discourse for disclosure in proceedings involving national security decisions” Accountability for Transnational Counter­Terrorism Operations, IACL Research Group on Constitutional Responses to Terrorism conference, Dickson Pool School of Law, Kings College London, March 2016

Privacy / data protection

“Encryption, safety, security and the illusion of easy answers” New Zealand Centre for Public Law / Office of the Privacy Commissioner expert symposium (forthcoming)

“Official access to encrypted communications in New Zealand: Not more powers but more principle?” (2020) 49(3-4) Common Law World Review 199

“Developments in Public Agencies' Access to Privately Held Data and Data Protection Obligations” Legalwise CLE, Auckland/Wellington, March 2018

“‘Big Data’ & public law: defining lawful search & access in the face of data ubiquity” New Zealand Law Society CLE, Wellington, February 2018

“Data ubiquity and the law” Crown Law Office, 2017; the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, 2017; New Zealand Judges’ Clerks’ Conference, 2018

Also past member, NZLS Privacy and Human Rights law reform committee