Stephen Kós

[1] After graduating from University of Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College) in 1985 with an LLM, Kós began a career in commercial litigation.

He was the 2022/23 James Merralls Fellow at Melbourne University Law School.In June 2024 he was made an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple.

In the 2023 King's Birthday and Coronation Honours, Kós was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the judiciary and legal education.

[9] Justice Kós wrote the judgments in a number of notable cases: in criminal law he wrote the guideline judgment on serious drug offence sentencing (Zhang v R), on mental health deficits as a mitigating factor in sentencing generally (Orchard v R) and judgments in appeals concerning the manslaughter of 3 year-old Moko Rangitoheriri (Shailer v R) and the murder of British backpacker Grace Millane (Kempson v R), in civil and public law he has written leading judgments on fiduciary duties and economic duress (Dold v Murphy) the doctrine of penalties (Wilaci Pty Ltd v Torchlight Fund, 127 Hobson Street Ltd v Honey Bees Preschool Ltd), defamation (Hagaman v Little, Craig v MacGregor) and prospective costs and Beddoe orders in trusts cases (Woodward v Smith, McCallum v McCallum), a judgment in which Kos sought to rein in background evidence admissible in a contract interpretation case did not survive further appeal to the Supreme Court (Bathurst Resources Ltd v L&M Coal Holdings Ltd).

[10] Kós has written extensively on connections between legal and political history – on New Zealand's nuclear treaty cases in the International Court of Justice, constitutional law (and the case of Fitzgerald v Muldoon),[10][11] on appellate history, and on jurisprudential differences between New Zealand and Australia.

Investiture of Kós as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by the governor-general, Dame Cindy Kiro , at Government House, Wellington , on 21 September 2023