Pacific Constitutions: An Inside view on Samoa’s 2021 Constitutional crisis
AAPS is delighted to announce “Pacific Constitutions: An Inside view on Samoan’s 2021 Constitutional crisis”, one of our keynote panels for the Pacific Discourses and Destinies AAPS 2025 biennial conference at the University of Sydney, 3-6 June 2025. To attend this event, register here via the USYD conference webpage.
Pacific Constitutions: An Inside view on Samoan’s 2021 Constitutional crisis
Professor Leilani Tuala-Warren, Dean of Te Piringa Faculty of Law, University of Waikato
In this presentation, I will begin with a broad overview of Pacific constitutions—highlighting the shared colonial legacies, diverse political systems, and the evolving nature of constitutionalism across the region. I will then focus on the events surrounding the 2021 Constitutional crisis in Samoa, which followed the general election and tested the limits of our democratic framework, judicial independence, and rule of law.
The latter part of this talk will reflect on the legal lessons we as a judiciary encountered during the crisis—particularly around the interpretation of entrenched constitutional provisions, the role of caretaker governments, and judicial enforcement of democratic norms. I will also speak personally about the ethical and institutional challenges we faced as judges during that unprecedented period.
Finally, I will consider the broader implications for constitutional governance in the Pacific, especially the need to strengthen institutions, clarify legal ambiguities, and protect judicial independence in small island democracies.
Professor Leilani Tuala-Warren
Professor Tuala-Warren is the current Dean of Te Piringa Faculty of Law at the University of Waikato and is the first Dean of Law of Pacific descent in Aotearoa and the first Pacific woman to be a Professor of Law in Aotearoa. Her career has spanned various roles, including serving as a state solicitor, a lawyer in private practice and the first Executive Director of the Samoa Law Reform Commission. She was the first Family Court and Family Violence Court Judge in Samoa in 2013, and the second woman to be appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court in Samoa in 2016, a role she held until 2023. She continues to hold temporary warrant as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Samoa.
In recognition of her achievements, she was awarded the University of Waikato’s Distinguished Alumni Award in August 2022. She has just been appointed a Member of the Waitangi Tribunal and is the first person of Pacific descent to be appointed to the Tribunal.