Sir Johann Thomas Eichelbaum (17 May 1931 – 31 October 2018) was a New Zealand jurist who served as the 11th

Chief Justice of New Zealand The chief justice of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kaiwhakawā Tumuaki o Aotearoa) is the head of the New Zealand judiciary, and presides over the Supreme Court of New Zealand. The chief justice of New Zealand is also the chief justice of Tokelau. Befo ...

Early life and family

Eichelbaum was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was ...

, Germany, and his family emigrated to

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

, New Zealand, in 1938 to escape the

persecution of Jews The persecution of Jews has been a major event in Jewish history, prompting shifting waves of refugees and the formation of diaspora communities. As early as 605 BCE, Jews who lived in the Neo-Babylonian Empire were persecuted and deported. ...

.For instance, on one occasion Eichelbaum was attacked by a group of other schoolchildren, and even the adult who stopped the assault abused him, calling him ‘a bloody Jew’. He became a naturalised New Zealander in 1946. Eichelbaum was educated at

Hutt Valley High School Hutt Valley High School is a state coeducational secondary school located in central Lower Hutt, New Zealand. A total of students from Years 9 to 13 (ages 12 to 18) attend the school as of making the school one of the largest in the Wellingt ...

, then attended

Victoria University College Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of New Zealand Parliament, Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Z ...

, graduating LLB in 1954. In 1956, Eichelbaum married Vida Beryl Franz, and the couple went on to have three sons. Eichelbaum's father Walter was first cousin with Siegfried Eichelbaum, the husband of the artist

Vera Chapman Vera Chapman (8 May 1898 – 14 May 1996), also known as Vera Ivy May Fogerty, and within the Tolkien Society as Belladonna Took, was a British author and founder of the Tolkien Society in the United Kingdom, and also wrote a number of pseudo-h ...

Legal career

In 1978, Eichelbaum was appointed a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

, and from 1980 to 1982 he was President of the

New Zealand Law Society The New Zealand Law Society ( mi, Te Kāhui Ture o Aotearoa) is the parent body for barristers and solicitors in New Zealand. It was established in 1869, and regulates all lawyers practising in New Zealand. Membership of the society is voluntary, ...

. In 1982, Eichelbaum was appointed a judge of the

High Court of New Zealand The High Court of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kōti Matua o Aotearoa) 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 ...

. The highest judicial position Eichelbaum held was in 1989 when he was appointed the

; he retired from the Bench in 1999.

Retirement

Following his retirement from the bench, Eichelbaum conducted investigations on a number of controversial topics. He chaired the 2000–2001 ''

Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification ''Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification'' was published in 2001 by the government appointed Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. Thomas Eichelbaum chaired the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. See also * Genetic en ...

''. He also investigated the reasons for New Zealand losing co-hosting rights to the

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

. Following his report, the chairman and the CEO of the

New Zealand Rugby Union New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...

both resigned. In 2001, he conducted a ministerial inquiry reviewing children's evidence in the controversial Peter Ellis case. His report, which has been widely criticised, upheld the guilty verdicts and stands in contrast to an earlier report by retired High Court judge, Sir Thomas Thorp. A ''New Zealand Law Journal'' editorial has stated that Eichelbaum had either not read all the children's statements (reviewing only those allowed by the trial judge) or that, "with respect, his judgment is at fault." On 7 October 2022 The Supreme Court of New Zealand quashed all of Peter Ellis' convictions for child sexual abuse. On 6 February 1989, Eichelbaum was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of British Empire in the 1989 Special Honours, and later that same year was appointed to the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...

. Eichelbaum was a non-permanent judge of the Hong Kong SAR Court of Final Appeal and a part-time justice of the Supreme Court of Fiji and the

Court of Appeal of Fiji The Court of Appeal of Fiji is one of three courts that were established by Chapter 9 of the 1997 Constitution, the others being the High Court and the Supreme Court. The Court of Appeal was a new institution established when the 1997 Constitut ...

. Eichelbaum died in Wellington on 31 October 2018, having been predeceased by his wife, Vida, Lady Eichelbaum, in 2013.

References

External links

''Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eichelbaum, Thomas 1931 births 2018 deaths New Zealand judges on the courts of Fiji New Zealand judges on the courts of Hong Kong Justices of the Court of Final Appeal (Hong Kong) 20th-century New Zealand judges Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to New Zealand Jurists from Königsberg Victoria University of Wellington alumni Chief justices of New Zealand High Court of New Zealand judges Supreme Court of Fiji justices People educated at Hutt Valley High School New Zealand Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire New Zealand King's Counsel Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council New Zealand members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of New Zealand