Foster's First Lecture

• Author: Transcribed by, and with notes by, Jeremy Finn
• Position: Emeritus Professor, University of Canterbury
• Pages: 55-68

Foster’s First Lecture

55

FOSTER’S FIRST LECTURE

*



The first form al recorded lectu re on a legal subject i n an educational i nstitution

in Canterbury was given by Dr Charles James Foster on 13 February 1873,1 to

inaugurate the Jurisprudence course oered by the Ca nterbury Collegiat e Union.2

Foster was a n English barr ister who had a stel lar academic career a s a student but

was less successful in practice. He was for some years the (part-time) Professor of

Jurispr udence at University Colleg e London, during which t ime he wrote his maj or

work, Elements of Jurisprudence.3 He emigrated with his family to New Zealand in

1864, presumably in the hope of greater professional success. A period of initial

success was followed by a number of reverses, including bankruptcy in 1869, but

his sta nding in the legal communit y made him an obvious ca ndidate to lecture i n

Jurispr udence at the newly-establi shed Collegiate Union an d thence to be the first

Lectu rer in Law at Canterbur y University Col lege.4

1 There is likely to have been earlier structured teaching of tikanga by Māori tohunga and

rangat ira in wha re wanang a prior to the ar rival of colon ists in the 18 40s, but there i s no known

record of th is.

2 For the C ollegiate Un ion see Jeremy Fin n Educating for the P rofession: A Hundred Yea rs of Law at

Canterbury (Canterbu ry Universit y Press, Ch ristchurc h, 2010) at ch 1.

3 Ch arles James Fos ter Elements of Jurisprudence (Walton a nd Maberly, London, 18 53).

4 For a fu ller biograph ical treat ment and a discu ssion of Foster’s vi ews on jurispr udential is sues

see J H Farr ar “Dr Charles Ja mes Foster: Cante rbury’s First L aw Teacher” (1980) 1 Cant erbury

LR 5–14. Mor e recent writi ng indicate s Farrar did no t appreciate the low i mpact of bank ruptcy

on the social and professional lives of New Zealand lawyers at that time, see Jeremy Finn

“Protec ting Client s’ Money: The Road to t he Solvency and E xperience Requ irements of the L aw

Practi tioners Act 1955” (2 021) 28 Canter bury LR 27–49 , at 34–35.

* Emeritu s Profess or, Universi ty of Can terbur y