'The Pitcairn Trials Saga - Justice in Britain’s Smallest Colony': Sir Ian Barker QC

Cambridge Law: Public Lectures from the Faculty of Law MOVED

On Wednesday 22nd November 2006 Sir Ian Barker, former Judge of the New Zealand High Court, and Emeritus Chancellor of the University of Auckland delivered a lecture entitled 'The Pitcairn Trials Saga - Justice in Britain’s Smallest Colony'. He discussed the history of Pitcairn, the various attempts to give it a legal system over the years since the mutiny on the Bounty, and gave an account of the lead-up to the arrest and trials of 6 men on Pitcairn for historic charges of sexual abuse of girls and young women, the trials on Pitcairn and in New Zealand, and the various challenges to the Courts' jurisdiction. If you wish to research the issues considered in the lecture further, you can review the various judicial decisions: - Reasons for report of the Lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Upon a Petition for Special Leave to Appeal, 11 October 2004 (http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/uk/cases/UKPC/2004/52.html); - Directions of the Lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Upon a Petition for Leave to Intervene and Directions hearing, 9 November 2005 (http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/uk/cases/UKPC/2005/42.html); - Judgement of the Privy Council 30 October 2006 (http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/uk/cases/UKPC/2006/47.html); For more information about Pitcairn, you may also review the Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcairn_Islands).