On Thursday this week, it was both a pleasure and a privilege to appear in the Supreme Court and argue an important case for my client and artist Sirpa Alalääkkölä https://sirpa.art/ and authors and creators in Aotearoa New Zealand more generally. The issue: whether, in this case, a fine artist was entitled to manage and control her copyright, both during her marriage and after separation, or whether the copyright properly fell into the community pool and, if so, how it should be valued and divided.

This is the first time the intersection between the Property Relations Act and the Copyright Act has been considered by our highest court and certainly the first time the Supreme Court has considered just what moral rights are and how they should find expression in this country. The intriguing question is how uniquely Māori concepts such as mana (in terms of an artist – prestige, influence, status, a supernatural force in a person https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=mana ) and mauri (life force, vital essence https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=mauri) and principles of Tikanga might apply is this situation. The Supreme Court having recognised in Ellis v R tikanga Māori’s place in the law of Aotearoa New Zealand, it will be interesting to see how the Euro-centric concept of moral rights, built around honor and reputation, is treated.

Now that we at the bar table have done our jobs it’s over to the Court to grapple with these issues.

I would just like to recognize the amazing support I received from Jeremy Hunter and his team at Zone Law, in particular Rose Gallon and Amanda Xirafakis and my co-counsel Sharon Chandra from Bankside Chambers, who did an amazing job on her feet dealing with some knotty questions from their Honours.

I have always supported giving junior counsel an opportunity to present, at least some part of the oral argument, and in accordance with the Chief Justice’s active encouragement of the practice and practice notes, it was good to see both parties’ counsel sharing their speaking roles, and doing so seamlessly.