Mark Henaghan

Professor Henaghan specialises in areas where criminal law and family law intersect such as family violence. He is happy to supervise doctrinal or interdisciplinary research, including empirical work.Henaghan

Professor Henaghan was the Principal Investigator in the most highly funded research by the Legal Foundation, $2.5m, looking into the ethical, legal and social issues revolving the discovery of the human genome. He is happy to supervise students in this area.

Professor Henaghan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand for his contributions to research in family law. He is also an Associate Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers. Professor Henaghan is a member of the Family Violence Death Review Committee, a statutory committee which looks into the causes of deaths in families, whether that be children, intimate partners or other family members. He was previously a member of the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technologies, a Government-appointed committee that sets out guidelines for the use of new assisted reproductive technologies. He was also a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Working Group that looked into the use of gene editing.

Professor Henaghan also has a strong interest in issues such as child poverty and family disadvantage. He was a member of the Advisory Committee to the Commissioner for Children, who produced a report on how we can reduce child poverty in New Zealand.

Professor Henaghan has written numerous publications on family law, including being the joint author of two leading texts on New Zealand family law: Family Law in New Zealand and Family Law Policy in New Zealand. He has published on all matters in family law in leading international journals. Most recently, he was a joint editor on an international book dedicated to the teaching of family law, which will be published later in 2023 by Routledge.

As a supervisor, Professor Henaghan puts a strong emphasis on regular meetings with doctoral and masters candidates in designing, planning and carrying out their research methodologies. Postgraduate work provides students a valuable opportunity to find their own voice and make a major contribution to how law should function in our society.