Justice David Goddard KC 

Justice David Goddard KC 
International Fellow

The Honourable David Goddard KC was appointed direct to the New Zealand Court of Appeal in 2019. He served as a judge for six years, retiring from the bench in July 2025. During his time as a judge he led development of the Digital Strategy for Courts and Tribunals adopted by the New Zealand judiciary in March 2023. He was the judicial lead for the new digital case management solution and portal for the courts of New Zealand (Te Au Reka). He continues to lead this programme for the New Zealand judiciary in his capacity as Special Advisor to the Chief Justice on Digital Technology. 

He was also the chair of the New Zealand judiciary’s Legislation and Law Reform Committee, and of the joint judiciary/Ministry of Justice Information and Digital Governance Committee. He was closely involved in developing principles to guide use of remote participation in court proceedings, and to guide the use of AI in the courts. In 2025 he led a project for the New Zealand judiciary on the future of the courts.   

In 2024 he was appointed as a Professorial Fellow in the University of Melbourne Law School, teaching in the intensive LLM programme. 

On 1 August 2025, he was appointed as an International Fellow of the Singapore Judicial College.

His current research interests focus on legislative design and the implications of digital technology for the design of law and the delivery of justice.  He is the author of Making Laws That Work: How Laws Fail and How We Can Do Better (Hart Publishing, 2022).

He has been the chair of the Grants and Scholarships Committee of the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation since its inception in 2017. Today the Foundation is a NZ$50 million charitable foundation that supports legal research, scholarship and education in New Zealand.   

Before his appointment as a judge he had a wide-ranging litigation practice, with a focus on appellate litigation. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2023, and was recognised as a leading (Band 1) silk in the Chambers and Partners guide.

He has also had an extensive involvement in law reform in New Zealand and overseas, advising ministers and government agencies, representing New Zealand in bilateral and multilateral negotiations, and drafting legislation and international agreements. He co-designed the Trans-Tasman court proceedings regime.  He was the President of the HCCH Diplomatic Session that adopted the HCCH Judgments Convention, and a Vice-President and member of the Drafting Committee for the HCCH Choice of Court Convention. 

He was a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal from May 2011 to May 2019, and Acting President of the Tribunal from February 2018 to May 2019. 

He received a first class honours degree in mathematics from Victoria University of Wellington, where he was awarded the Sir Robert Stout Scholarship for the best first degree across all faculties. He received a first class honours degree in law from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes Scholarship. 

He spent the 2018/2019 academic year as a Senior Global Fellow from Practice and Government at the Hauser Global Law School, New York University. 

He was elected as a member of the American Law Institute in 2019. In 2025 he was awarded life membership of the Australasian Association of Private International Law in recognition of his contribution to private international law. 

He speaks and writes regularly in his areas of particular interest, including the design of legislation; the use of digital technology to support the delivery of justice; contract law; equity and the law of trusts; and private international law.