New Zealand judge’s resignation piles more pressure on Lord Glennie

Lord Glennie

Sir William Young, a former judge of the New Zealand Supreme Court who is well known for leading an inquiry into the 2019 Christchurch terror attack, stood down less than two weeks after his appointment late last month, The New Zealand Herald reports.

He was appointed at the same time as Ireland’s former chief justice Frank Clarke and former High Court president Peter Kelly, both of whom resigned within days of their appointment amid a backlash over the UAE’s dismal human rights record.

Lord Glennie, who retired as a Senator of the College of Justice in 2020, was sworn in last year before Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the UAE’s absolute ruler.

Writing in Scottish Legal News yesterday, retired Irish barrister Bill Shipsey, a former chair of Amnesty International Ireland, challenged Lord Glennie to step down.

“I don’t know and don’t really care what you are being paid for your service on the court since, unlike Scotland or Ireland, the pay for DIFC judges is nowhere publicly available,” Mr Shipsey wrote.

“But I ask rhetorically: could any money be worth it and is this what you wish to have as part of your rich, hard earned and fully deserved legal and judicial legacy? That after your retirement, you served a despotic Emirati ruler on his commercial DIFC Court?”

He added: “I realise that it is harder for you to step down now than it was for my two former Irish colleagues who resigned within days of their appointments, but it is never too late to do the right thing. And I am sure that you know what that ‘right thing’ is.”