Sir John William Salmond, KC (3 December 1862 - 19 September 1924) was a legal scholar, public servant and judge in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

Biography

Salmond was born in North Shields

North Shields

North Shields is a town on the north bank of the River Tyne, in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in North East England...

, Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, in 1862, the eldest son of William Salmond (d. 1917), a Presbyterian minister and professor. His family emigrated to Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1876 where he attended Otago Boys' High School

Otago Boys' High School

Otago Boys' High School is one of New Zealand's oldest boys' secondary schools, located in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. It was founded on 3 August 1863 and moved to its present site in 1885. The main building was designed by Robert Lawson and is regarded as one of the finest Gothic revival...

 (1876–79). Salmond graduated from the University of Otago

University of Otago

The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...

 in 1882 with a B.A. degree and later an M.A. He then obtained a Gilchrist

Gilchrist Educational Trust

The Gilchrist Educational Trust is a British charity supporting education, perhaps best known for its support of the Gilchrist Lecturers from 1867-1939....

 scholarship to study at University College, London, where he graduated in law and became a fellow.

Returning to New Zealand in 1887, he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court, and practised in Temuka in the South Island. In 1897 he was appointed professor of law at the University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide

The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...

, South Australia, and in 1906 he returned to New Zealand to take up the founding chair in law at Victoria University College

Victoria University of Wellington

Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...

, Wellington. In 1907 Salmond was appointed as Counsel to the Law Drafting Office where he remained for four years, until his appointment in 1911 as Solicitor-General

Solicitor-General of New Zealand

The Solicitor-General of New Zealand is the second law officer of state in New Zealand. The Solicitor-General is also head of the Crown Law Office, that comprises lawyers employed to represent the Attorney-General in court proceedings in New Zealand....

. He was made a King's Counsel in 1912, knighted in 1918 and appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand

High Court of New Zealand

The High Court of New Zealand is a superior court of New Zealand. It was established in 1841 and known as the Supreme Court of New Zealand until 1980....

 (now known as the High Court) in 1920.

Salmond represented New Zealand at the Washington Naval Conference

Washington Naval Conference

The Washington Naval Conference also called the Washington Arms Conference, was a military conference called by President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington from 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922. Conducted outside the auspices of the League of Nations, it was attended by nine nations...

 from November 1921 to February 1922. Upon his return to New Zealand he resumed his judicial duties but died, following a heart attack, in Wellington on 19 September 1924.

Salmond married Anne Bryham Guthrie (1861?-1941), daughter of James Guthrie of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, in 1891 in Dunedin. They had two sons and a daughter, of whom the eldest, Capt. William Guthrie Salmond, was killed in action in France in July 1918.

Publications

He was the author of several legal texts:

• Jurisprudence or the Theory of the Law (1902) ( for which Salmond was awarded the Swiney Gold Cup in 1914 by the Royal Society of Arts
  Royal Society of Arts
  The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
  
  )
• The Law of Torts (1907) (for which Harvard University in 1911 awarded Salmond the James Barr Ames
  James Barr Ames
  James Barr Ames was a American law educator, who popularized the "case-study" method of teaching law developed by Christopher Columbus Langdell. Ames insisted that legal education should require the study of actual cases instead of abstract principles of law...
  
  Prize for the best legal treatise published in the world over a period of five years)
• Principles of the Law of Contracts (1927) with P. H. Winfield.

Two of these in particular, Salmond on Jurisprudence and Salmond on Torts, are regarded as legal classics.