Rate My Professor Shelley Griffiths

Professor Shelley Griffiths holds the position of Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Otago. She earned her BCom, LLB (Hons), and MA from the University of Otago, complemented by professional qualifications CA and MInstD. Before academia, she practiced in an international accountancy firm and contributed to professional accountancy education. Joining the Faculty of Law in 2001, she advanced to Dean from 2021 to 2025. She previously chaired the Academic Committee of the Banking and Financial Services Law Association and has held visiting positions at the Oxford Centre for Business Taxation, the Ross Parsons Centre at the University of Sydney, and the Tax Group at Melbourne Law School.

Griffiths specializes in taxation—particularly public law principles and rights analysis in tax administration—the history of New Zealand income tax, and capital markets regulation. She teaches Taxation, Advanced Taxation, Company Law, and Securities Market Regulation. Notable publications include: Griffiths and Handford (2025), "Tax exceptionalism: A view from New Zealand," Journal of Tax Administration; Griffiths (2024), "The ‘abusive tax position’ penalty," New Zealand Law Journal; Griffiths and Hartshorn (2023), "Fragile and strong: The oxymoron of tax administration and constitutionality in New Zealand," Review of International & European Economic Law; Griffiths (2021), "Is tax administration 'ectopic'? Assessment, interpretation, adjudication and application: The roles of the Commissioner of Inland Revenue and the Courts," Victoria University of Wellington Law Review; and Griffiths (2021), "Lex Aotearoa: A moment of intersection, the 1952 Commission of Inquiry into the taxation of Māori authorities," in Studies in the History of Tax Law, Volume 10. Her 2017 inaugural professorial lecture, "Tax as Law," underscores her contributions. Her scholarship on taxation as public law and its interplay with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act has influenced courts, practitioners, and scholars domestically and internationally.