Fran Wright

In 2011 Fran Wright moved to Armidale to take up a lecturing position at the UNE School of Law. She moved to Australia with her husband Paul and two kids Jenny and Owen. She was a bit apprehensive about moving to Australia, but soon came to love living in Armidale where she made many friends.

Soon after Fran started at UNE she became reacquainted with an old friend- Professor Mark Perry. Mark had encountered Fran on many occasions and locations around the world. They first met in Auckland in the early 1990s when Fran was working on her PhD. He then saw her in Oxford and again in Wellington when she was a lecturer at Victoria University Faculty of Law.

Fran’s main teaching and research interest was Criminal Law. Like many academics, Fran also researched into areas which were of personal

Fran’s family

significance to her. As Fran’s son Owen has Down’s syndrome, Fran was a great advocate of the need to normalise the experiences of people with special needs. She brought this to her scholarship on disability law. She researched the underlying models and assumptions evident in laws relating to disabled children and their carers. 

A foetus

Shortly before she died Fran (with Aileen Kennedy) organised a forum on the proposed Zoe’s Law. Zoe’s Law related to a bill that was then before the NSW Legislative Council. This bill conferred the status of personhood on foetuses over 20 week’s gestation for the purposes of criminal assault. Fran introduced the session by providing a concise summary of the circumstances that led to the proposed bill and an outline of the legislation that currently applies.  Many stakeholders, including politicians from all of the major political parties, academics, legal practitioners, medical professionals and church leaders came together at this forum to debate both the pros and cons of the legislation.

Dr Caroline Morris from the Queen Mary University of London also has very fond memories of Fran. They first met in 1994 at the law school offices at Victoria University of Wellington. ‘I was a fourth-year student and she had just been appointed as an assistant lecturer.  I was walking down the corridor and heard a cheery hello come from what could only be described as a cubbyhole in the wall but was officially her office.  That was the first of many, many chats over the years – in Wellington, Bradford and London.  Fran had an irrepressibly bouncy personality but also a determined core.  She was so generous with her time, her advice and her friendship.’

After Fran died in 2014, Caroline was instrumental in organising the Fran Wright Memorial Prize in Criminal Law at Victoria University of Wellington. This prize was first awarded in 2016. It is given to the student who “best continues the legacy of the late Fran Wright by approaching the study of criminal law with diligence, thoughtfulness and an excellent understanding of the social and policy implications of the New Zealand criminal law.” Caroline organised this prize in order to commemorate Fran who had been such a hardworking and collegial part of the law school for many years.

Some of Fran’s creations

Fran was an amazing cook. She was always experimenting with new and unusual dishes. If you were invited to Fran’s house for a meal, you were assured of an interesting and tasty experience – except perhaps that time she made a dessert from cabbage and cream…

 She loved knitting and would often attend meetings with her knitting on board. When the meeting got boring out would come the knitting. She left a collection of 30 kilometres of wool, 200 cooking magazines, and 100 recipe books.

Sadly Fran Wright passed away on the 14th April 2014. She is missed by all who knew her.