Date: Wednesday 31 March 2021
Time: 0830 New Zealand Time
Registration fees: Free
Topic: The Equal Treatment Bench Book (latest UK edition)
Master Victoria McCloud is a Master of the Senior Courts, Queen’s Bench Division. Appointed in 2010, at age 40, she was the youngest person ever appointed Master, and only the second woman. She was also the first judge appointed from the transgender community.
Master McCloud is a researcher at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the Oxford University Law School. She is also a Chartered Psychologist, qualified in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
She has been an editor of Civil Procedure (also known as ‘the White Book’) since 2000 and is the author of various legal books, as well as academic papers. In 2018, she presented the second Queen’s University Belfast Pride Law Lecture.
Master McCloud is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within the judiciary and legal professions and beyond. She is a member of the Committee reviewing and updating the UK’s Equal Treatment Bench Book, which aims to increase awareness and understanding of the different circumstances of people appearing in courts and tribunals. You can read the recently published Equal Treatment Bench Book here.
Here in New Zealand, superdiversity (when a significant proportion of the community are from overseas) is deepening. This is having an impact on the clients lawyers advise and on parties in our courts.
Our own Institute of Judicial Studies is developing an Equity/Diversity Handbook for judges. Its purpose is to guide judges in addressing the issues which arise when presiding over cases involving diverse (including culturally and linguistically diverse) parties.
However, as the Superdiversity Institute’s Report on Culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse parties in the Courts: a Chinese case study notes on page 41: ‘bench books can only go so far, and … it is important that there is active and ongoing discussion to build cultural capability’.
Register now to join that discussion and to hear about Master McCloud’s career and experience in developing guidance on making courts a safer and more accessible place for the diverse communities they serve.
This session is a must attend for practitioners and litigators.
Register for Master McCloud’s session here.
If you have any queries, please contact NZ Asian Lawyers at info@superdiversity.org