Place of birth:  

Sir Salamo Injia  was born of village parents at Augutamanda Village in the Tsak Valley, Wapenamanda District of Enga Province in 1958. He is a son of a village Lutheran Church Pastor.

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Education:

He attended Augutamanda Lutheran Elementary School (Enga Tok Ples School) between 1964-1965. He attended Tsak Raiakama Lutheran Primary School from 1966 to 1972, and St Paul’s Lutheran High School, Pausa, from 1973 to 1976. He attended Preliminary Year studies at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1977 and studied Law from 1978 to 1981 and graduated with a Law Degree.

In his year at the Law School, he was awarded the dux award  of the 1981 University Graduating Students in February 1982.

In 1982 he completed his practical legal training at  the Legal Training Institute and received his admission to the bar in November of that year.

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Work experience:

He commenced work with the Public Solicitor’s Office in 1983 where he worked as a lawyer and rose to the rank of Deputy Public Solicitor (Civil Litigation).

In 1986, he won the American Fulbright Scholarship to study for  Master of Laws at Harvard Law School where he completed studies and obtained Master of Laws Degree in 1987.

In early 1990, he  left the Public Solicitor’s Office and joined K Y Kara Lawyers and practiced law. In 1991, he joined Shepherds Lawyers where he practiced law until his appointment as an Acting Judge in September 1993. 

In addition to his work at the bar, he lectured part-time in Law from 1982 to 1985 in Criminal Law and Contract Law.

In October he was appointed full time to the bench for a term of 10 years and posted to Mt Hagen as a resident Judge and later assumed responsibilities as the Senior Resident Judge. In 1999, he moved to Lae where he served as its Resident Judge until his appointment as Deputy Chief Justice in September 2003 for a term of 10 years.

On 31st October 2008, he was appointed Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea for a term of ten years and served in that position  until 31st October 2018 when his term expired.

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Honours and Awards:

During his term as Deputy Chief Justice, he was Knighted by the Queen.

During his term as Chief Justice, he was conferred Grand Chief of Logohu bearing the title “Chief”. He was also made recipient of the Queens Jubilee Award in 2013 from Prince Charles when he visited PNG.

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Books:

In his term on the bench, he wrote and delivered many judgments. In addition,  he has written and co-authored 11 textbooks: Criminal Law and Practice in PNG (co-authored by Sir Salamo Injia, Dr David Weisbrot and Professor Andrew Charmers), Injia’s Pacific Law on Criminal Procedure, Injia’s Pacific Law on Criminal Offences, Injia’s Pacific Law on Sentencing, Injia’s Pacific Law on Contempt, Injia’s Pacific Law on Crime Investigatory Practices, Injia’s Pacific Law on Coroner’s Inquests, Injia’s Pacific Law on Statutory Interpretation, Injia’s Pacific Law on Evidence,  Civil Procedure in Papua New Guinea (co-authored by Chief Sir Salamo Injia and retired Justice Greg Law), Constitutional Law of Papua New Guinea (co-authored by Chief Sir Salamo Injia and retired Justice Greg Lay.

His 12th Book, Philosophies of Law in Papua New Guinea, is the first book written by him since leaving the bench. The new book is due for release in late 2020.

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Other publications:

During his term in office, he was responsible for authoring or overseeing the publication of numerous other booklets for use by Judges, Lawyers and Court staff.

They are on sale through the National Court Library. They include  Manual of Judicial Administration, 2010 (NJSS Publication) The High Court of Papua New Guinea- A  Decade of Development and Beyond (2018, NJSS Publication) and Damages for Personal Injury – Comparable Verdicts (2007, NJSS Publication). 

Post “retirement” work:  

Appointed Chairman of Commission of Inquiry into government’s UBS Loan in August 2019.