ABSTRACT
Judge Michael J. Brown was New Zealand’s rst Maori district court judge (1980-1995). He contributed notably to reshaping the youth justice system in New Zealand, pioneering the use of communitarian principles of justice with young oenders, rst in the Waitakere District Court in the 1980s and then nationally as New Zealand’s rst principal youth court judge (19891995). He nurtured cultural change in youth justice practice, developing the practice of community accountability and responsibility and the philosophy underpinning the CYPF Act 1989. (For a more detailed account of the CYPF Act, see Appendix D.) A decade later, he conducted the ministerial review of care and protection services in the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services (Brown, 2000).
