Lecturer to address link between domestic violence, animal cruelty

LAWRENCE — A New Zealand lawyer will discuss the connection between domestic violence and animal cruelty during the 2018 Diplomat’s Forum at the University of Kansas School of Law.

Anita Killeen, former chief prosecutor in New Zealand’s Serious Fraud Office, will present “Animal Law: The Connection between Domestic Violence and Animal Cruelty – A New Zealand Perspective” at 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 5, in 104 Green Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Killeen is founder and chair of the internationally recognized Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Auckland Pro Bono Panel of Prosecutors, a group of senior New Zealand lawyers who prosecute animal cruelty cases for free. She will discuss significant case law and empirical research linking domestic violence and animal cruelty and will recommend legislative changes to help curb abuse.

Killeen regularly publishes and speaks nationally and internationally. She is a faculty member of the New Zealand Law Society Litigation Skills Programme, an international member of the American Bar Association Animal Law Committee and a member of the International Association of Prosecutors. A former criminal law tutor at the Auckland University School of Law, Killeen also has served in New Zealand’s Government Chief Legal Advisors’ Forum and the Organised and Financial Crime Policy Action Group.

Killeen is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and both the Institute of Directors and the Institute for Strategic Leadership (New Zealand).

The Diplomat’s Forum is the law school’s most prestigious annual international and comparative law event. Its aim is to provide a platform for an open sharing of thoughts on international law and relations and the United States through the perspective of a professional with notable diplomatic experience in the service of a foreign government.

Past speakers have included the general counsel and legal director of the International Monetary Fund; China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations; Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister of commerce and industry and chief World Trade Organization technical negotiator; the consul generals of Japan and Austria; and the chairperson of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee.