The Solution

David Tong | Editor
david.tong@thesolution.org.nz
David recently graduated from the University of Auckland with conjoint bachelors degrees in law and arts.  He now works as a judges’ clerk at the Auckland High Court.  In arts, he double-majored in politics and philosophy.  He split the focus of his law honours between criminal law, focusing on the role of the RNZSPCA in prosecuting animal welfare offences, and environmental law, focusing on climate change.  He is the Vice President (Governance) of the United Nations Youth Association of New Zealand, is on the ARLAN executive, and in 2008 was a senior editor of the Auckland University Law Review.  He runs, hikes, and drinks coffee.  He has been vegan since 2004.

Vernon Tava | Editor
vernon.tava@thesolution.org.nz
Vernon is a founding member of SoLVe and its 2009 President. He graduated in law at the University of Auckland and is currently writing a Master’s thesis in environmental law. He is a Research Fellow at the New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law, a specialist centre of the Auckland University Faculty of Law. His current research interests are in the areas of ecological governance, participatory democracy, Latin American political movements, and animal law. Vernon is vegan and sees this as a logical corollary of being an environmentalist. For this reason, he is particularly interested in highlighting the unity of moral concern for human and non-human animals as well as ecosystems.

Peter Sankoff | SoLVe Patron
peter.sankoff@thesolution.org.nz
Peter is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland, Faculty of Law, where he has worked since 2001.   He is the author or editor of four books, including Animal Law in Australasia: A New Dialogue – the first book published in the Southern Hemisphere to focus exclusively on animal law issues.  Peter has taught animal law at the University of Auckland since 2006, and it is the only course of its type currently being offered in New Zealand.  In addition, he has taught animal law as a Visiting Professor at Haifa University in Israel (2008), and as a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne (2009).  Peter is in the process of constructing the world’s first course on Comparative Concepts in Animal Protection Law, which will be offered in the Summer Program at Lewis and Clark University in Portland, Oregon in June 2010.   Peter is SoLVe’s Patron and founder, and interested in all matters concerning animal law, especially where it intersects with consumer food choices.  He has been vegan since 2004.

Edward Miller | Contributor
edward.miller@thesolution.org.nz
Ed has graduated from the University of Auckland and currently holds down a full-time position slacking around and getting very little done, while dreaming large. He works as a research assistant on transnational legal issues and as an assistant to a car-boot barrister extraordinaire at the Manukau District Court. A keen cook and gardener, Ed is fascinated by all parts of the processes by which food comes to our tables, as well as by issues of global justice, poverty, human rights, international trade, and globalisation. Ed recently converted from vegetarianism to veganism, and also enjoys reading, cycling, making music, and shooting the breeze.

James Roach | Contributor
james.roach@thesolution.org.nz
James is a recent graduate of the University of Auckland. Studying and practicing law has been a lifelong ambition for James, and he has found the university experience at Auckland to be a dream come true. James loves to cook, bake bread/cakes/other vegan goodies, and loves to work in the garden. James is interested in politics, philosophy, and economics, and finds that being vegan is the best way to realise his moral and political ideology. James is an avid cyclist and loves getting outdoors, whether it is backpacking, hiking, or just going to the beach.