Dr David V Williams

Dr David V Williams holds a personal chair as Professor of Law at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He studied at Victoria University of Wellington, and then was a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford. He has tertiary qualifications in history, law and theology. His PhD is from the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania where he taught in the 1970s. From 1991 to 2001 he was an independent researcher engaged primarily in claims to the Waitangi Tribunal. He has authored five books –including Te Kooti tango whenua: The Native Land Court 1864-1909 (Huia Press, 1999) and A simple nullity? The Wi Parata case in New Zealand Law and History (Auckland University Press, 2011).

Presently he is the Visiting Scholar at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. His current research focus, funded by a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund grant, is on the symbolism and meanings of the ‘Crown’ in New Zealand and the Commonwealth.