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Faculty & Staff

Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie

Assistant Professor
Director, Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law

Telephone: (808) 956-0828
Email:mkmacken@hawaii.edu

B.A. 1970, Beloit College
J.D. 1976, University of Hawai`i School of Law

After receiving her law degree, Professor MacKenzie served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William S. Richardson of the Hawai`i Supreme Court. In 1980, she joined the staff of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, a public interest law firm protecting and advancing the rights of Native Hawaiians. She served as NHLC's Executive Director from 1982-1986 and as a senior staff attorney from 1986-1992. From 1992-1999, she was the Executive Director of the Hawaiian Claims Office, a state program established to review and make recommendations on claims by Hawaiian Home Lands beneficiaries. Prof. MacKenzie is project coordinator and chief editor for revisions to the Native Hawaiian Rights Handbook (1991), which she originally edited and helped to write, and is a contributor to the new edition of Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law. Prof. MacKenzie teaches Native Hawaiian Rights, Native Hawaiian Rights Clinic, and Advanced Topics in Native Hawaiian Law. 

 

 

Williamson B.C. Chang
Professor

 

Telephone: (808) 956-7136
Email:wbchang@hawaii.edu

A.B. 1972, Princeton University
J.D. 1975, University of California, Berkeley



Professor Williamson Chang was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai`i. He graduated from Princeton University with degrees in Asian Studies and from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Thereafter, he attended the University of California, Berkeley [Boalt Hall] where he was an editor of both the California Law Review and the Ecology Law Quarterly. He clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Dick Yin Wong in Honolulu and began teaching at the University of Hawai`i the following year. He has taught a wide variety of courses, including corporations, securities regulation, constitutional law, federal courts, conflicts of law, and jurisprudence. Recently, he has been teaching Native Hawaiian Rights and Indigenous Peoples' Law. He has been a visiting professor at various law schools including the University of Wisconsin, the University of San Francisco, Hiroshima University, and the University of Western Australia. He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Australia and served as a staff member to the United States Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs.

Prof. Chang has done extensive work in the development of water rights and the state water code. He served as a Deputy Attorney General and represented Chief Justice William S. Richardson in a number of critical property rights cases, such as McBryde Sugar Co. v. Robinson [water], Sotomura v. County of Hawai`i [beaches] and Zimring v. State of Hawai`i [volcanic accretion]. Prof. Chang was extremely active in the development of the state water code and drafted the state water code as a reporter for the Advisory Commission on Water Resources. He has served as litigation director for Native Hawaiian Advisory Council and represented various Native Hawaiian individuals and community groups in court and before Congress. He is currently working on an account of the actual history of the United States acquisition of Hawai`i titled: "A Rope of Sand: The United States Annexation of Hawai`i."

 

 

Carl C. Christensen
Visiting Assistant Professor

Telephone: (808) 956-7230
Email: carlcc@hawaii.edu

B.S. 1968, Oregon State University
Ph.D. 1978, University of Arizona
J.D. 1990, Harvard Law School

 

Professor Carl Christensen holds an appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai`i. Prior to accepting his current position, Professor Christensen served as Senior Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (2001-2005) and as Staff Attorney with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (1991-2001). He has also been employed as an associate in the Honolulu law firm Burke, Sakai, McPheeters, Bordner, and Gilardy (1990-1991), as a legislative aid to Hawai`i State Representative Bill Pfeil (1986-1987), and as a research zoologist at Honolulu's Bishop Museum (1979 - 1985). Professor Christensen teaches Federal Indian Law and Second Year Seminar.

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