Borrin Foundation – Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Postgraduate Scholarship for Pita Roycroft

About Pita

Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Hāmoa – Moata’a

Ko Tongariro te maunga, ko Taupō-nui-a-tia te moana, ko Te Arawa te waka, ko Ngāti Tūwharetoa te iwi, ko Ngāti Parekaawa te hapū, ko Poukura te marae. Ko Tuhirangi te maunga, ko Tutaekurī te awa, ko Takitimu te waka, ko Ngāti Kahungunu te iwi, ko Ngāti Hinepare te hapū, ko Moteo te marae.

Pita is of Māori and Samoan descent, and the eldest of six. He graduated with an LLB(Hons)/BA from Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington in 2018, ranking first in class for law. He was admitted to the bar in 2019.

Since graduating, Pita has worked as a Judge’s Clerk for the Chief Justice and as a Junior Barrister to Shortland Chambers. He has also worked at the Crown Law Office, the Law Commission, and in private law firms. Pita has tutored public law and legal skills courses for over five years at both Victoria University and the University of Auckland.

Pita is passionate about the law and legal thinking. In particular, he is interested in whether the possible synergies between indigenous law and Western private law can be used to develop hybrid legal and constitutional systems designed to reflect the values of modern societies.

What Pita is studying

Pita is using the Borrin Foundation – Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Postgraduate Scholarship towards the costs of study for a Master of Laws in the United States. The LLM will include both coursework and a research component.

He is interested in studying whether and to what extent principles of indigenous or customary law (such as tikanga Māori) can influence the development of tort law in Aotearoa New Zealand and other Western states with indigenous populations. Pita’s study will include analysis of the possible obstacles to developing hybrid systems of (private) law.

He will take a variety of courses to support this research, including Native American law, American constitutional law and private law, which offer a comparative perspective on the values underlying (and interplay between) both indigenous and Western legal systems.

Pita intends to produce research that is of real use for practitioners, the courts and academics in the ongoing development of both private and public law in Aotearoa New Zealand. He also wishes to use his study to further pursue his career as a barrister, with an ultimate goal of being able to contribute to a flourishing society with a legal system reflecting the communities it serves.

Scholarship amount

$80,000