Scott Optican

Associate Professor
BA, University of California, Berkeley (1982)
MPhil, University of Cambridge (1983)
JD, Harvard Law School (1988)
Bar admissions: New York (1989); California (1991)

Contact details
Building 803, room 3.08
17 Eden Crescent
Auckland

Phone: +64 9 923 5637
Email: s.optican@auckland.ac.nz

Available to students
Open door policy

Profile

Scott Optican is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Alumni and Advancement at The University of Auckland Faculty of Law in New Zealand. A member of the executive board of Fulbright New Zealand, he holds a BA degree in Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley (1982), a Masters degree (MPhil) in Criminology from the University of Cambridge, England, (1983), and a JD degree from Harvard Law School (1988). Scott interned at the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch of the United Nations in Vienna, Austria (1985), served as a prosecutor in the New York County District Attorney's Office (1990), and clerked for the Hon. Constance Baker Motley of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York (1989).

He specializes in evidence, criminal procedure, and comparative criminal procedure, and has written widely on criminal justice and policing issues arising under the New Zealand Bill of Rights. Scott is also a co-author of The New Zealand Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press: 2003), the first comprehensive treatise on the protection of rights and freedoms under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

In 2001, Scott was a Visiting Professor at the University of Oregon School of Law, USA, where he taught criminal law and criminal procedure. In June 2004, Scott taught comparative criminal procedure at the University of Auckland Faculty of Law with Professor Joshua Dressler, Frank R. Strong Chair in Law at the Ohio State University, Michael E. Moritz College of Law. He also taught comparative criminal procedure at the University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law, Canada (2005) and at the University of Kansas School of Law, USA (2006).

In December 2005, Scott gave lectures on Western concepts of criminal procedure to Turkish lawyers, academics and judges attending seminars at the Bahcesehir University Faculty of Law in Istanbul, Turkey. He also travelled to Israel in Nov/ Dec 2007 to be a visiting professor at the University of Haifa Faculty of Law. Scott’s new, co-authored book on the NZ Evidence Act 2006 — Mahoney, McDonald, Optican and Tinsley, The Evidence Act 2006: Act and Analysis — was published by Brookers in Dec 2007. He also recently contributed a chapter on criminal procedure to Tolmie and Brookbanks (eds), Criminal Justice in New Zealand (LexisNexis 2007). Scott is a regular commentator in the New Zealand media on issues related to crime and justice.

Research Interests

• Criminal Procedure
• Evidence
• NZ Bill of Rights/ Comparative Bill of Rights law

Special Interests

Scott’s research interests include the law of evidence under the New Zealand Evidence Act 2006, criminal procedure and the control of police investigative practices under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, and comparative criminal procedure/ Bill of Rights law (Canada/ New Zealand/ USA).

Courses Taught

• LAW 425 Evidence
• LAW 482 Criminal Procedure

Recent Thesis/Dissertation Supervision Topics

• Less Than Legal Force? An examination of the Legal Control of the Police Use of Force in New Zealand
• Rationalising the Right to Counsel: Section 23(1)(b) of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
• Communications with Ministers of Religion: The Concepts and Contours of the Clergy-Communicant Privilege
• Standing under Section 21 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
• Section 37 Evidence Act 2006: The Veracity of Witnesses in Civil and Criminal Proceedings
• The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination in Civil Proceedings (PhD)
• The Proceeds of Crimes Act (LLM)
• Name Suppression in Sexual Assault Cases (LLM)

Recent Publications

• Mahoney, McDonald, Optican & Tinsley, The Evidence Act 2006: Act and Analysis (Wellington, Thomson Brookers, 2007) 585pp
• ‘Criminal Procedure’ in J Tolmie and W Brookbanks, Criminal Justice in New Zealand (Wellington, LexisNexis, 2007) 40pp
• Rishworth, Huscroft, Optican & Mahoney, The New Zealand Bill of Rights (Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 2003) 916pp
• Optican & Gotlieb, Mukayeseli Hukukta: ARAMA, IFADE ALMA VE HUKUKA AYKIR DELILLER (Lectures in Western Concepts of Comparative Criminal Procedure) (Istanbul, Bahcesehir University: Institute for Global Understanding of Law, 2006) 50pp
• ‘Lessons from Down Under: A Dialogue on Police Search and Seizure in New Zealand and the United States’, Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, 3, 257-272, 2005
• ‘The New Exclusionary Rule: Interpretation and Application of R v Shaheed’, New Zealand Law Review, 451-535, 2004
• Optican and Sankoff, ‘The New Exclusionary Rule: A Preliminary Assessment of R v Shaheed’, New Zealand Law Review, 1-44, 2003