Sir Peter Blanchard (born 2 August 1942) is a former judge of the

Supreme Court of New Zealand The Supreme Court of New Zealand () is the highest court and the court of last resort of New Zealand. It formally came into being on 1 January 2004 and sat for the first time on 1 July 2004. It replaced the right of appeal to the Judicial Co ...

Biography

Blanchard was born in the

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

suburb of

Epsom Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...

on 2 August 1942, the son of Cyril and Zora Blanchard. His father served as a flying officer with the

Royal New Zealand Air Force The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF; ) is the aerial warfare, aerial military service, service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed initially in 1923 as a branch of the New Zealand Army, being known as the New Zealand Perm ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and died during air operations over Germany on 26 May 1943. In 1968, Blanchard received a Master of Laws degree from the

University of Auckland Law School Auckland Law School is one of the eight faculties that make up the University of Auckland. Auckland Law School is located at the City Campus, between Waterloo Quadrant and Eden Crescent. It is in close proximity to the Auckland High Court of ...

. He was then awarded a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

and a

Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship The Frank Knox Memorial Fellowship program is a scholarship program which funds students from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom to undertake graduate study at Harvard University. The program is named after the businessman, sold ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

where he received a master's degree in law. He specialized in commercial, insolvency and property law as a partner at the Auckland law firms of Grierson Jackson & Partners (1968–1983) and Simpson Grierson (1983 to 1992). In 1992, Blanchard was appointed as a judge of the

High Court of New Zealand The High Court of New Zealand () is the superior court of New Zealand. It has general jurisdiction and responsibility, under the Senior Courts Act 2016, as well as the High Court Rules 2016, for the administration of justice throughout New Zeala ...

and in 1996, he was appointed as a judge of the

Court of Appeal of New Zealand The Court of Appeal of New Zealand () is the principal intermediate appellate court of New Zealand. It is also the final appellate court for a number of matters. In practice, most appeals are resolved at this intermediate appellate level, rathe ...

. In 1998 Blanchard was appointed as a New Zealand member of the Privy Council and in 2004 was appointed to the

. Appointment to the Privy Council grants the right to use the style of

The Right Honourable ''The Right Honourable'' (abbreviation: The Rt Hon. or variations) is an honorific Style (form of address), style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire, and the Commonwealt ...

so Blanchard became The Right Honourable Justice Blanchard. In the

2005 New Year Honours New Year Honours were granted in the United Kingdom and New Zealand at the start of 2005. Among these in the UK were knighthoods awarded to Mike Tomlinson, the educationalist; Derek Wanless, who led a review of the National Health Service; ...

, Blanchard was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the judiciary, and in 2009 he accepted redesignation as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit following the reintroduction of titular honours by the government. Blanchard has also served as an expatriate justice of the Supreme Court of Fiji and the Court of Appeal of Kiribati. On 4 August 2021 he was appointed as an acting judge of the Supreme Court of Samoa for a term of two years. He also serves as a commercial court judge, applying English Common Law, on the ADGM (Abu Dhabi Global Market) Courts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanchard, Peter 1942 births 20th-century New Zealand judges 21st-century New Zealand judges Harvard Law School alumni Knights Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit Living people Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council New Zealand expatriates in the United States New Zealand judges on the courts of Fiji New Zealand judges on the courts of Kiribati New Zealand judges on the courts of Samoa New Zealand members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Supreme Court of Fiji justices Supreme Court of New Zealand judges University of Auckland alumni