My latest Socialist Academic Profile looks at Otago University associate law professor, Andrew Geddis.
In the early ’90s, Geddis was active in the Otago University International Socialists, a Trotskyist group led by lecturer Brian Roper.
Geddis was a senior ISer and active protester, mainly with the university’s Education Action Group.
In ’94/95, the IS joined forces with former members of the Stalinoid Communist Party, to form the Socialist Worker’s Organisation.
A good writer, Geddis joined the editorial collective of the SWO’s “Socialist Worker” magazine until around ’97 when the two groups went their seperate ways.
Some of this time Geddis spent overseas as in 1996 he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Harvard Law School. In 2000 he returned to Otago to take up a lecturing position.
Andrew Geddis teaches contract and public law as well as a paper on Law and the Democratic Process. His research interests centre on public law, rights jurisprudence and democratic theory, with a strong focus on the legal regulation of elections.
Geddis is one NZ’s up and coming legal academics and in 2005 Attorney-General Margaret Wilson appointed him to the influential Legislation Advisory Committee.
In this capacity, Geddis provides advice to parliament’s Justice and Electoral Committee and Privileges Committee.
Geddis is a strong advocate of the socialist dream-state funding of political parties and the limitation of private funding of political causes.
He has written several papers on the subjects including “Regulating New Zealand’s Party Funding in an MMP environment”, (2001) and “Towards a System of Taxpayer Funding for New Zealand Elections?” (2002).
Geddis has also written many op-eds on related subjects for NZ’s main newspapers.
If, God forbid, NZ ever adopts state funding of political parties, I think we may lay some of the blame at the feet of this old “Trot” from Otago University.
Ah, Andrew Geddes! I remember him as a student. A born elitist, scion of a rich family and Old Boy of Christ College or was it Eton? He took his noblesse oblige seriously and once deigned to speak to me. I used to open his mail regularly in those days. His old man had given him money to visit London, and he duly wrote to the Trot Kremlin in Blighty offering to go and do “anything the Party asked of him.” The Otago Law Faculty has a number of fruitloops and Private School Old Boy/Girl Reds, so Andrew’s in good hands.
Have you got no life or so desperate that you need to blog, blog about a person who is highly regarded, educated and is capable of having a conscience and believes in what he wants to, to try and make your sad pathetic existence justified?
Hi Ex
I know one at Canterbury and there are rumours of one at Lincoln in the ’50s.
Is there such a creature as a right-wing lecturer Trev?.
EXOCET
Happy to oblige Cameron-wouldn’t want you getting brainwashed by some nasty “right wing” lecturer by mistake, would we?
Had been thinking of asking you to write some more of these, as it is not long before I have to choose subjects for semester 2 at University of Auckland.