Record four getting law doctorates

Abby Suszko, Prof John Dawson and Chinese scholar Xiju Zhao prepare to graduate from the University of Otago with law doctorates today. Photo by Linda Robertson.

Four people, including University of Otago supervisor Prof John Dawson and a student he has supervised, Abby Suszko, will receive rare University of Otago law doctorates today.

It will be the largest number of people to gain Otago law doctorates at a single graduation ceremony in a "red letter day" for the Otago law faculty, university officials say.

Prof Dawson (55) and Prof Bruce Harris, of Auckland University - a former Otago law dean - will receive doctor of laws (LLD) degrees, based on the excellence of their published research. Ms Suszko and a Chinese legal scholar, Xiju Zhao, will gain PhDs.

This is also the first time an Otago law supervisor and his or her supervised student have gained doctorates at the same ceremony.

And Mr Zhao (42) is the first legal scholar from mainland China to gain an Otago law doctorate.

"To receive this degree from the university where I studied in the 1970s, under Jim Flynn and under many of the law staff who are now my colleagues, and to have it awarded on the same day as my doctoral student - it's a great thrill," Prof Dawson said.

Today's graduation was the culmination of a "long research journey" which had begun when he had started researching mental healthcare in Auckland in his early 20s.

He congratulated Ms Suszko on a "super thesis on a charged subject"- it focused on "contrasting visions of equality and rights" involving the foreshore and seabed debate.

Both Prof Dawson and Ms Suszko grew up in Dunedin and gained their first degrees at Otago.

Prof Dawson also praised Mr Zhao's achievements in quickly completing a doctorate while living away from home and working with a second language.

Prof Dawson's degree is being awarded for 25 years of publications on mental health law, especially law governing compulsory psychiatric treatment outside hospital. His main concerns have included the proper design and use of such regimes and "whether unjustified limits are placed on human rights".

Ms Suszko (29) was "incredibly humbled and honoured" to be graduating at the same ceremony as her primary supervisor, Prof Dawson.

Mr Zhao is an associate professor who teaches law to both law and medical students at a Chinese medical university in Jinan, in northern China.

He started his doctoral studies at Otago in 2008, the same year he published a book in China on Western approaches to the law involving medical matters, based on an earlier visit to Otago University.

He felt "fulfilled, pleased and lucky" to have completed his studies.

In the past, few New Zealand law students gained PhDs but 24 people are now studying for Otago law doctorates.

Only three other earned LLDs have been awarded at Otago University.

- john.gibb@odt.co.nz