Samoa
BA 1985, LLB. 1989 Victoria University of Wellington.
Ida Malosi is the first Samoan and Pacific island women judge in New Zealand. She is also the patron of the MALOSI project run by Pacific law students at Auckland University. After graduating from Victoria she established an all Māori and Pasifika women legal practice in South Auckland – King Alofivae Malosi – which received the Auckland District Law Society’s EEO ‘Most Innovative’ award in 2000.
In 2002, she became New Zealand’s first female Pasifika Judge when she was appointed to the Family Court. Since then, she has sought to implement alternative, culturally appropriate responses to youth offending in her community, working with her Māori Youth Court colleagues on establishing Rangatahi Courts and is now a judge on the Pasifika Courts. In 2015, the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration awarded the Rangatahi and Pasifika Courts its Award for Excellence in Judicial Administration. Judge Malosi’s judicial achievements extend beyond New Zealand to Samoa, where she served as that country’s first Samoan female Supreme Court Judge between May 2013 and July 2014. During her time in Samoa she established the Family Court and the Family Violence Court, and implemented judicial settlement conferences. She also laid the groundwork for the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court to be established in Samoa by Judge Ema Aitken.
