Dame Sian Elias and “small c” constitutional heroism

Elisabeth Perham and Jessica Kerr

Chapter 16 in Elgar Companion to Female Chief Justices in Comparative Perspective, 2026, pp 332-360 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: From 1999 to 2019, a woman led New Zealand's judiciary for the first time. We offer some early reflections on the “quiet authority” of Chief Justice Sian Elias during a period of potentially destabilising change. While it is not clear that Elias can be described as a feminist heroine, her tenure was characterised by bravery and civility, reflecting a judicial philosophy founded on independence and compassion. Elias oversaw the critical capital-building phase of the new apex Supreme Court, deflecting critiques of “activism” through a focus on stability and restraint. She did not shy away from reasoned dissent, nor from public confrontation with the executive on core questions of constitutional democracy. And she remained conscious of her role as a first-generation female leader, ultimately leaving the Court in the hands of another woman. Whether this narrative, in these circumstances, could have been more explicitly feminist remains an open question.

Keywords: New Zealand; Judiciary; Chief Justice; Supreme Court; Sian Elias; Leadership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035308637
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035308644.00023 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22158_16

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().