Reform A Memoir

Politician and law professor Geoffrey Palmer recounts the events and forces that shaped him in this memoir, as well as his many adventures in reforming a wide range of institutions, laws, and policies. Reform has been a recurring theme throughout Geoffrey Palmer’s life, not only during his career in politics and as a Prime Minister, but also as a law professor and law practitioner. He speaks of his early life and family background and the eventful lives of his pioneering ancestors. He examines the intellectual influences on his thinking, particularly the nature of his education both in New Zealand and the United States, and chronicles his life according to the issues: accident compensation, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Law Commission, liquor law, Maori issues, parliamentary reform, the Resource Management Act, law and order, prisons, and local government reform. Meticulously detailed and engagingly written, Reform is essential reading for anyone interested in New Zealand legal and political history.

Geoffrey Palmer is the former Prime Minister of New Zealand and has held many political offices, including Deputy Prime Minister and several terms as a Member of Parliament. He has also taught as a law professor in the U.S. and New Zealand, has been President of the New Zealand Law Commission, and represented New Zealand on the International Whaling Commision. He was knighted in 1991 and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Law.