Ellen France

Dame Ellen Dolour France (née Larkin; born 1958) is a New Zealand jurist. She is currently a justice of the Supreme Court to which she was appointed in 2016, and was previously the president of the Court of Appeal.

Biography Ellen Dolour Larkin was born to parents who were both teachers. From 1982, she worked as a solicitor for the Auckland practice of Subritzky, Tetley Jones & Way.

In 2002, France was appointed to the High Court in Auckland. She received her appointment as a judge to the Court of Appeal in June 2006.

In the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours, France was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the judiciary.

France's late husband, Simon France, was a judge of the Court of Appeal until just prior to his death in 2023. They met in their first year at Auckland University Law School in the late 1970s.