Mari Kapi
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Sir Mari Kapi, GCL, CBE, CSI is the Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea.
He was born 12 December 1950 at Keapara village, Rigo District, Central Province. He was entirely educated in Papua New Guinea, graduating from the University of Papua New Guinea in 1972. He was employed as a lawyer with the Office of the Public Solicitor and on 1 January 1978 became the first Papua New Guinean national to be appointed a puisne justice of the Supreme and National Courts of Papua New Guinea (the Supreme Court not being a separately constituted court but a "full court" of the National Court). He was appointed Deputy Chief Justice in 1982.
In his jurisprudence Sir Mari is generally perceived as a strict legalist in the stamp of Sir Owen Dixon and his judgments are noted for their erudition, articulateness and highly literate awareness of common law principle. In evident recognition of Mr Justice Kapi's considerable rigour in the application of the principle of stare decisis he was appointed a member of the Fiji Court of Appeal and in addition to his judicial responsibilities in Papua New Guinea he also renders appellate judgments in that common law jurisdiction.
Sir Mari was elevated to Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea in August 2003, for a ten-year term, the fourth person to occupy that position since Papua New Guinea's independence in 1975.
