Negotiating the Two Additional Protocols of 1977: Interview with the Right Honourable Sir Kenneth Keith

The Right Honourable Sir Kenneth James Keith ONZ, KBE recently completed his term as the first permanent judge of the International Court of Justice from New Zealand. He has enjoyed a distinguished and varied career as an academic, government lawyer and judge. Sir Kenneth was a faculty member of Victoria University Wellington Law School from 1962 to 1964 and from 1966 to 1991. He served in the New Zealand Department of External Affairs in the 1960s, as a member of the UN Secretariat from 1968 to 1970, as Director of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and as President of the New Zealand Law Commission. From 1996 to 2003, Sir Kenneth was a Judge of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand and a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He was subsequently one of the inaugural appointments to the new Supreme Court of New Zealand following the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council. Sir Kenneth was a member of the New Zealand delegation to the 1974–1977 Diplomatic Conference to negotiate the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions. Tim McCormack interviewed him in Wellington, New Zealand in July 2018.