Sir William Gillow Gibbes Austen Young (born 14 April 1952) is a New Zealand judge. He served on the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

from 2004 to 2010, including as President from 2006. In 2010 he joined 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 ...

. After retiring in 2022, Young has accepted appointments to international courts, including the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal in 2025.

Early life, family, and early career

Born in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

on 14 April 1952, Young was educated at Christ's College,

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

(LLB (Hons) in 1974) and

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

(PhD in 1979) in the United Kingdom with a thesis ''Duress and abuse of inequality of bargaining position''. In 1979, he and his wife, Susan, were married, and they went on to have three children. After obtaining his PhD, Young worked in the Christchurch law firm R A Young Hunter & Co, before moving to the independent bar to become a barrister sole in 1988. Young was made a

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1991 and acted in several high-profile cases, including the Winebox Inquiry of the 1990s.

Judge

Young was appointed a High Court Judge in Christchurch in 1997, a

Judge when the Supreme Court was created in 2004, and to the position of President of the Court of Appeal in January 2006. Sitting on the Court of Appeal, Young in 2006 in '' R v Wanhalla'' described model jury directions in a criminal trial on the

standard of proof In a legal dispute, one party has the burden of proof to show that they are correct, while the other party has no such burden and is presumed to be correct. The burden of proof requires a party to produce evidence to establish the truth of facts ...

required. In the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours, Young was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services as president of the Court of Appeal. In

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, following the restoration of titular honours by the New Zealand government, he accepted redesignation as a Knight Companion. In 2013, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in laws from the

. Young was appointed a Judge of the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

with effect from 1 July 2010. During his tenure he chaired from 2019 to 2020 the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the

Christchurch mosque shootings Two consecutive mass shootings took place in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 15 March 2019. They were committed by a single perpetrator during Friday prayer, first at the Al Noor Mosque in Riccarton, at 1:40p.m. and almost immediately afterwards ...

. He remained a permanent member of the Supreme Court until 2022. Thereafter he sat as an acting judge of the Supreme Court until 2024. On 3 April 2024, Young was granted retention of the title ''

The Honourable ''The Honourable'' (Commonwealth English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific Style ...

'', in recognition of his service as a judge of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court. Following his retirement from the New Zealand Supreme Court, Young has accepted five international judicial appointments. He was appointed a judge of the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts in July 2022, but resigned less than a month later citing the risk of 'adverse perceptions' in light of concerns raised by human rights campaigners about foreign judicial appointments allegedly being used to legitimise the United Arab Emirates political regime. In August 2022 he was appointed an ad-hoc justice in the Court of Appeal of the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (; Seychellois Creole: ), is an island country and archipelagic state consisting of 155 islands (as per the Constitution) in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, Victoria, ...

. On 7 November 2022 he was sworn in as a judge of the Court of Appeal of Samoa. In October 2023 he was sworn to the Supreme Court of Fiji. On 8 May 2025, the Hong Kong government announced that Young would join the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal as a foreign non-permanent judge after receiving the endorsement of the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, colloquially known as LegCo, is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under People's Republic of China, China's "one country, two systems" c ...

Non-judicial involvement

While a barrister, Young was involved with the

New Zealand Law Society The New Zealand Law Society () 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, although any person wishing ...

educational programme and, since appointment to the bench, with the Institute of Judicial Studies, being the primary author of its Criminal Jury Trials Bench Book. He wrote ''"Summing Up to Juries – What Jury Research says about Current Rules and Practice"''

003 003, O03, 0O3, OO3 may refer to: * 003, former emergency telephone number for the Norwegian ambulance service (until 1986) * 1990 OO3, the asteroid 6131 Towen * OO3 gauge model railway * ''O03 (O2)'' and other related blood type alleles in the AB ...

Crim LR 665 and co-authored a chapter in ''Witness Testimony: Psychological, Investigative and Evidential Perspectives'' (Oxford University Press 26 October 2006)."2009 Conference Presenters"
AMINZ Inc. Retrieved 22 September 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, William Alumni of the University of Cambridge Court of Appeal of New Zealand judges Knights Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit University of Canterbury alumni 1952 births Living people 20th-century New Zealand judges People educated at Christ's College, Christchurch Supreme Court of New Zealand judges New Zealand King's Counsel New Zealand writers 21st-century New Zealand judges New Zealand judges on the courts of Samoa University of Canterbury Faculty of Law alumni