: By Margaret Greville
Published August 2005
Margaret Greville
is the Law Librarian at the University of Canterbury in
She is the principal author of Legal Research and Writing in
New Zealand, 2d ed, by Margaret Greville, Scott Davidson and
Richard Scragg, Wellington NZ, LexisNexis (NZ)
2004.
She has been an active member of the NZLLG for the last 30 years. She has
written and spoken at conferences & seminars, most recently at the Joint
Study Institute (JSI,
Update
to an article previously published on LLRX.com, on
<http://www.llrx.com/features/newzealand.htm>
Table of Contents
The New Zealand Government and
Legal System
New Zealand Primary Legal
Information
Legal News and Current
Awareness
Legal Research study in New
Zealand
Researching Particular
Subjects in New Zealand Law
Environment, Planning, & Resource Management Law
Media & Telecommunications Law
An
exception to the 'pure' form of this type of government is the cluster of seats
reserved for voters who are on the Maori electoral roll. The number of seats set aside for those who
identify themselves as Maori voters is adjusted from time to time in the same
way as for the general roll to reflect the numbers on it. Citizens of Maori descent can choose whether to
be on the Maori or General roll.
It
operates as a unitary state, and not as a federal system like
It
does not have a written constitution,
in the sense of a single entrenched legislative instrument spelling out the
powers of the various arms of government.
It
does have a number of constitutional
documents which together spell out some of the rights of citizens, while other
civil rights are safeguarded by the operation of common law. The New
Zealand politics source book, 2d ed by Stephen Levine with Paul Harris,
1999 offers in its table of contents a very clear outline of
In
the
Below
it sits the Court of Appeal. Next down
in the hierarchy is the High Court of New Zealand, with seats in main centres
throughout the country. Finally in this
general court system is the District Court, usually the court of first instance
for most matters, and these courts are to be found in most towns and cities in
In
addition to these courts of general jurisdiction, there are also a number of
courts of special jurisdiction, such as the
In
addition to the various courts, there is quite a large number of Administrative
Tribunals that exercise judicial power, while there is also a bewildering array
of Authorities, Commissions, Ombudsmen, and Boards that exercise statutory
decision-making powers. A truly
excellent resource for those who wish to unravel this knotty tangle is the
directory provided by the University of Waikato's Law
Library. This web site also
contains details of where decisions of the various decision-making bodies may
be obtained.
The
whole body of existing English law, both legislation and common law, as well as
the English constitutional conventions, was received into
Until
very recently,
There
is an inexorable drive towards the web in most areas of
This
is not an easy matter to unravel. There is a helpful introduction on the Ministry of Justice web site
for multilateral treaties to which NZ is signatory.
The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade conducts the Government's business with
foreign governments and international organisations, but its web site is opaque. If
you start from the home page and
choose "Foreign and Trade Policy" then choose the link to "Legal Division"
under "International Relations", you get to where you will find as much as there
presently is presently available online in the public arena on this curiously
arcane subject.
At
present, the only official version of the
Statutes
are passed by the House of Representatives after passing through three
Progress
on this front since the last time this article was published (three years ago)
will have left nail-biters with raw stumps for fingers. In the meantime, free access to a compiled version of current Acts, Bills and Regulations
has been made available. Curious readers
with time on their hands can study the history of New Zealand's attempts to create a free
online public access database of official compiled legislation.
The
'official' series of law reports in
There
are also about 20 other series of subject law reports. For an excellent and up to date historical
survey of
There
is also a flourishing trade in unreported decisions. These consist of the transcripts of decisions
as they are issued by the various courts and tribunals, and before they are
reported (although by far the majority of
Most
of the report series that are still current are available electronically as
well as in hard copy, and just a few are available only electronically. They are mostly offered on the web sites of
the two remaining major legal publishers in
There
are also two databases dating from around 1985 that provide bibliographic
details of unreported decisions of the superior courts. These are LINX and Briefcase. Although both started life as independent
entities, in the last two years both have been further developed by the rivals
Brookers (who have bought Briefcase) and LexisNexis (NZ) (who have a joint
venture arrangement with the LINX committee).
Both now offer a large number of full text decisions attached to the
original bibliographic records as pdf files, and both have links to cited
legislative sections. LINXPlus is an
enhanced version of LINX that also allows hypertext linking to full text
reported versions of cases on Lexis Nexis Butterworths Online. Each may be searched (on the two respective
web sites) simultaneously with other selected case law databases.
For
general open access to the decisions of the courts there has been little
progress since the 1st incarnation of this overview more than 5 years ago. Although at that time it seemed that we were
set fair to be enjoying online access to all judicial decisions in the very
near future, it now seems that the judges are adopting a much more conservative
approach to the free dissemination of all cases.
It
seems that there may still be a measure of judicial unease at the prospect of
unmediated public access to all judicial decisions. For one judge's view, see
However,
NZLII, a fledgling
The
standard text on the New Zealand Parliament is Parliamentary practice in
The Parliamentary Bulletin is an invaluable publication,
issuing weekly while Parliament is sitting, that tracks the progress of bills
through the House, activities of Select Committees, and other parliamentary
information.
Information
about the
1.
The
2.
Directory of official information, published biennially
by the New Zealand Ministry of Justice.
This is so far only available in paper.
It was last produced in 2001.
3.
The New Zealand Government's web pages: Navigation around these pages is generally
straightforward, except that information about government departments is rather
obscurely tucked away under a button labelled 'agency contacts'.
Local government websites
have proliferated over the last two years, and the NZ government website offers
a good access point for all of them, as well as general interest on this
subject.
See
below, under Legal Profession, and Legal Ethics.
The
three main legal publishers in the
A
number of web sites which offer online current awareness services either of a
general nature or of particular interest to lawyers can be located among the
websites listed here. Most of them are free.
Many
Legal
publishers offer various online &/or email current awareness services to
clients on subscription. For example,
Brookers offers regular (often daily) newsletters on subjects such as: Family
Law, Human Rights, Employment, Land Law, Business Law, and an Accounting,
Corporate and Tax Alert.
A
number of useful current awareness services are published in
Two
publications offer regular summaries of recent unreported cases. These are: The capital letter: a weekly
review of administration, legislation, and law edited by Jack Hodder.
The Parliamentary Bulletin.
Trans Tasman is a privately circulated weekly popular with business and
corporate lawyers interested in public affairs on both sides of the Tasman.
A
number of these have been noted in other parts of this article, but it may be
helpful to draw some basic works together in one place. Many are in print only. Characteristically, many are disappointingly
limited by failing to be comprehensive in their cover of
Students
at all five law schools in
There
are now two books on legal research in
This
is intended as no more than a starting point for someone in a hurry. It is no substitute for a methodical search
in a law library catalogue, a good hunt through the relevant legislation and
cases, and time spent searching in legal journal indexes such as LINXPlus,
AGIS, LegalTrac etc.
Each
subject is approached through governing legislation (and the list in each case
will not be exhaustive), case law specific to that subject (and excluding
generic series such as the New Zealand
Law Reports), secondary materials such as chapters in Laws of New Zealand and standard texts, journals specific to the
subject, and online resources, which includes free and subscription materials.
See:
Personal Injury
(see
also: Civil Procedure, and Legal Profession below)
The
main piece of legislation here is the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989,
under which banks are registered. Also
significant are:
The
web pages of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand provide a rich
source of information about the banking environment and monetary policy in
There
is a Banking Ombudsman service offering free
and independent assistance for people to sort out their unresolved problems
with participating banks. The
participating banks are all listed on the web site, as are the services
offered. You can access the Case Notes and Newsletter via this web site. There are also online forms for complaints
and requests for information.
The
trading and savings banks also maintain web pages:
See
also: Companies and Securities
The
governing legislation for personal insolvency is the Insolvency Act 1967, while
the Receiverships Act 1993 governs the receivership of companies. There are a
number of sections of the Companies Act 1993 that have significant effect in
this area as well. Also significant are:
The
New Zealand Insolvency and Trustee Service
website carries a lot of useful information on this subject in its Information
Library, and offers access to the monthly Business
Update newsletter. You can subscribe
to this online and receive each issue by email.
The website also carries a database of information on insolvency
matters, including banned directors and managers, and failed companies. Creditors are now able to file claims online.
Changes
to the insolvency regime are in the wind (as you might surmise from the age of
the legislation and the standard text on the subject, see above), and there is
presently a draft Insolvency Law Reform Bill and a discussion document on the MED web site, along with a growing
collection of other publications and press and public statements on the
progress of shaping the draft Bill.
This site also
offers information about bankruptcy and company liquidation, both on this site (under
Company Liquidation) and through its gateway to the resources on the Companies
Office site.
There
has also been an influential Law Commission Report
on this matter, and there is a link to this from the media statement on the MED
web site - or see the Commission's own web pages for this report.
There
is a raft of legislation in this broad subject area. A collection of the basic legislation may be
found in the New Zealand Business Law
Guide, edited by G. W. Hinde et al,
Auckland, CCH, 1985 - (looseleaf).
Annual or occasional compilations are also supplied in New Zealand Contract and Commercial
Legislation, 21st ed, 2005 and in the student edition, Introduction to New Zealand Commercial
Legislation (2005) (both also out of the CCH stable, and in Butterworths Commercial Legislation
(2003).
Significant
Acts include, i.a.:
|
Bills
of Exchange Act 1908 |
Carriage
of Goods Act 1979 |
|
Cheques
Act 1960 |
Commerce
Act 1986 |
|
Consumer
Guarantees Act 1993 |
Contractual
Mistakes Act 1977 |
|
Contractual
Remedies Act 1979 |
Credit
Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 |
|
Credit
(Repossession) Act 1997 |
Fair
Trading Act 1986 |
|
Hire
Purchase Act 1971 |
Illegal
Contracts Act 1970 |
|
Insolvency
Act 1967 |
Personal
Property Securities Act 1999 |
|
|
|
There
is no single chapter of the Laws of New
Zealand covering this area; rather a number of separate chapters, for
example: Consumer Credit and Hire
Purchase, Consumer Protection, Creditors Remedies, and
The
former Ministry of Commerce has been replaced by the Ministry of Economic Development. This is a very densely cross-referenced web
site, with links to a huge number of useful sources on various aspects of the
business environment. There is access to
a large number of publications and public statements
on business law and trade and discussion and publications on business policy and law. The Ministry also offers a free email
newsletter, the Business Update.
The
Motor Vehicle Securities Register has been incorporated within the Personal Property Securities Register. Both are maintained by the MED.
The
Treasury website is a good source of up to date
information about the current national economic climate and its management by
government.
Brookers Commercial Library - This is a
subscription based electronic library, comprising:
·
Banking and Finance
Practice and Procedure,
·
Commercial Cases,
·
Commercial Views,
·
·
Franchising Practice
and Procedure,
·
Gault on Commercial
Law,
·
Information Technology
Contracts Practice and Procedure,
·
Mergers, Acquisitions,
and Takeovers Practice and Procedure,
·
Patents Practice and
Procedure
·
Trade Marks Practice
and Procedure
These
may be subscribed to as separate products, or in any combination. There are hypertext links within and between
the products, and it is possible to search across a selection of any of them and/or
any other Brookers products. See http://www.brookers.co.nz/, "Go to Libraries".
CCH
also has its Business Law Library available online for
subscribers. This comprises:
LexisNexisNZ
has its Commercial Law in New Zealand available
online.
The
statute establishing the jurisdiction of the High Court is the Judicature Act
1908, and this also provides for the making of the rules of court. Originally, these appeared as a schedule to
the Judicature Act (the present rules were originally contained in a schedule
to the Judicature Amendment Act (No.2) 1985), but now the Judicature Act
provides for a Rules Committee with powers to make and amend rules to govern
the practice and procedure of the High Court.
These are the High Court Rules.
The
District Courts Act 1947 provides for the making of the District Court Rules,
which are now amended by the same Rules Committee that is responsible for the
High Court Rules, thus maintaining reasonable consistency between the two sets
of rules.
The
Supreme Court Act 2003 establishes the new Supreme Court and ends appeals to
Her Majesty in Council, and amends the Judicature Act accordingly.
There
are 3 chapters of the Laws of New Zealand
on this subject: Civil Procedure:
District Courts; Civil Procedure: High Court; Civil Procedure: Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
Brookers Practice and Procedure Series. This consists of over a dozen subject-based
sets of documents on particular aspects of legal practice, available online by
subscription, either separately, as a package, or separately but within a
related subject library. For example,
the Company P&P set is also
available as part of the Company
Library, along with commentary, legislation, and cases on that subject.
Brookers Civil Procedure Library, available online by
subscription, contains Civil Litigation
Law and Practice, District Courts Procedure, McGechan on Procedure, and the
Procedure Reports of
What
used to be Lexisnexis's Civil Procedure
and Practice library is now less evidently that because of the new
distribution of products within LN's new global platform. However, the District Courts Practice (Civil), and Sim's Court Practice are both still available online by
subscription.
The
web pages of the Courts section of the Ministry of Justice contain
information for legal professionals, including practice notes and guides.
The
New Zealand Law Society offers a web page of Guidelines, Practice Notes, and Court notices
for practitioners.
There
is a collection of legislation relating to takeovers on the web site of the Takeovers Panel.
The
relevant chapters of the Laws of New
Zealand are: Companies, and Shares and Securities.
The
New Zealand Companies Office is a unit of the
Ministry of Economic Development. Its
web pages offer useful information on the companies regime, online compliance and
registration facilities, and also the opportunity to register to receive a free
Business Update Newsletter.
You
can register a new company, reserve
a company name, file certain
company documents (including annual returns) and update director and company address information online. You can search the register for information on companies, other bodies
including incorporated societies, and the banned director database.
For
information on company registration around the world, see the international pages
on the UK Companies House
website.
On
The
New Zealand Futures and Options Exchange website has now been incorporated
within the Sydney Futures Exchange website.
The Securities Commission of New Zealand is
established under the Securities Act 1978, and its aim is to foster capital investment in
The Takeovers Panel web site offers
information about the takeovers regime in
What used to be Datex has merged with McEwen & Co Ltd to become the Investment Research Group (IRG), although the old name is
retained in the URL. IRG offers
subscription access to investment information relating to
Brookers Company and Securities
Library (subscription) contains as separate infobases: Company Law, Securities Law, Insolvency Law, Company and Securities
Cases, and Company Practice and
Procedure.
LexisNexis's global platform offers online access to Morison's Company
Law and Morison's Securities Law by subscription. Each contains commentary and relevant
legislation and precedents, while the Company
and Securities Law Bulletin.
CCH (NZ) is a major publisher of company
and commercial legal information, and its online Company library offers subscription access to commentary on law and
practice, cases, and relevant legislation - all corresponding to its hard copy
products from the CCH Library Online link.
Both Lexis and Westlaw contain large volumes of (mainly American)
international company, securities, and general commercial information; both are
accessible online by subscription or other payment options available from time
to time from Lexisnexis Butterworths and Brookers.
(see
also Consumer Law, below)
The
Laws of New Zealand contains a
chapter on Competition.
The
Commerce Commission is the
Consistent
with the Commission's educative function, there is a great deal of useful
information about its work available through its web pages. There is an archive of the decisions of the
Commission (acting in its judicial capacity) back to 1997, and a collection of
the Commission's published pamphlets and guidelines. Fair's
Fair was a publication carrying case notes and other commentary on the
Commission's decisions on the Fair Trading Act, and there is an archive of the
issues of this newsletter that were published between 1997 and 2001, when the
publication ceased. Likewise, Compliance, a newsletter explaining the
Commission's role in respect of ensuring compliance with legislation containing
competition-related implications has now ceased publication, but an archive
1997 - 2001 is available online. The
final issue focuses on compliance issues arising out of the Dairy Industry
Restructuring Act.
The
New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and
Regulation Inc (ISCR) publishes its research papers to its web
pages, and the archive of the Competition
and Regulation Times may also be found at this source.
(see
also: e-Commerce, below)
This
is a very wide area of study indeed, embracing as it does intellectual
property, privacy, data protection, e-government, e-commerce (see below), and
computer contracts to name just a few sub-sets.
(to
name but a couple that are relevant)
Because
this subject now permeates every area of the law, cases will be found in almost
any series of law reports or databases of unreported decisions.
This
global subject has generated a sizeable literature in all its facets, mostly
written in other jurisdictions. A search
on any law library catalogue should turn up works on the particular aspect you
are researching. Most material on paper relating directly to the New Zealand
environment is in the form of seminars and articles, and a search on LINXPlus,
LegalTrac, &/or AGIS will be a good way to search, once you have looked at
a recent text on the subject.
The
following is a somewhat random and idiosyncratic selection. Not surprisingly, one of the seminal journals
in this area is JILT (Journal of
Information, Law and Technology), now published only online by the Law School of the University of Warwick.
There
is vast array of information available online in the international arena. The University of Canterbury Law
Library web pages have captured links to some sites that present
material and/or directories of material on computer-related legal matters - but
this list is by no means exhaustive.
Domainz is a register for .
Electronic Business and Technology
Law is
available as a looseleaf work, but also forms part of the IP - Media -
Technology Library within Lexisnexis Online.
There
are plenty of books on this subject, often written by law librarians, from most
jurisdictions. Characteristically, the
subject is now treated simply as one aspect of an integrated approach to legal
research, rather than a field in its own right, and so is usually covered in a
general work on legal research within the jurisdiction under study.
There
are 2 chapters in the Laws of New Zealand
on this subject: Conflict of Laws:
Choice of Laws, and Conflict of Laws:
Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments.
For
the most part,
The
New Zealand Law Society runs occasional seminars on this subject; the most
recent is:
For
child abduction matters, see below under Family Law.
(see
also Competition Law, above)
Another
area where there is a raft of legislation; for example:
Relevant
chapters in the Laws of New Zealand are:
Consumer Credit and Hire Purchase and
Consumer Protection.
Some
recent publications are:
In
addition, any basic text on commercial law will contain sections on the various
aspects of consumer law.
The
Ministry of Consumer Affairs is the
administering body. Its well-stocked web pages offer advice to both consumers
and traders to assist compliance. As
well as being a valuable source of information, the site lists all available
fact sheets and leaflets on consumer-related topics that may be either ordered
or down-loaded off the web pages.
Consumer, a magazine devoted to consumer
issues, has a web presence where, although most of the really meaty articles
are available for a fee (often only after you have first been tempted half-way
into a feature), there is a great deal of useful information available free of
charge.
Gault on Commercial Law is part of the
Brookers Commercial Law Library within Brookers Online. It offers annotated commercial legislation,
including consumer law.
The
common law of contract has been much modified in
Contract
law issues arise in all aspects of legal life, and case law consequently may be
found in any report series. Major cases
will, of course, appear in the New
Zealand Law Reports.
There
is a Contracts chapter in the Laws of
Standard
works are:
Common
law aspects of the subject are also covered in such English classics as Chitty on Contracts, 29th ed
by H. G. Beale et al.
The
New Zealand Law Society runs occasional seminars by way of 'refreshers' for
practitioners; the most recent of these was:
The
New Zealand Government has recently legislated to disestablish the Privy
Council as final court of appeal for
There
is a chapter on Courts in the Laws of
Works
on practice and procedure are noted under Civil Procedure (above) and Criminal
Procedure (below).
There
is a diagram showing the hierarchy of the courts on the home page for the Courts. Information on the history, business,
constitutional status, and organisation of
Courtside,
The
Courts home page is a useful site for access to
information about the work of the various parts of the courts system, with
useful lists of and links to the courts and tribunals under its
jurisdiction. It must be remembered that
not all tribunals are administered by the Department for Courts; however, there
are links to these from this web site.
The site also carries information about the work of the courts, together
with publications for litigants.
Another
helpful source of information about courts, tribunals and the plethora of other
decision making bodies with which we are blessed is the web site of the University of Waikato Law
Library, where there is a directory of decisions of these
bodies. Readers should be aware,
however, that not all parts of this directory are always up to date. However, it does function as a comprehensive
index to these bodies, and also offers information about where the
determinations of the various bodies may be found.
Information
about the Employment Court of New Zealand may be found on the Labour Department site. This is a very up to date site, with a lot of
topical information. You can register
to receive copies of the Employment
Relations update as it is published.
There is also a subscription service for delivery of cases through the Employment Institutions Information Centre.
A list of recent cases (with no subject
details) may be scanned without charge at http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/bin/recentcases.asp. You may order individual cases off the web
site.
Transcripts
of hearings of the Supreme Court (along with summaries of decisions, and
finally the decisions themselves) are all available from the Supreme Court web pages.
The
Maori Land Court
has its own web site, where the
The
Youth Court website was named
There
is a handy cluster of links to international courts from WORLDLII, and to the courts of individual
jurisdictions here.
Crimes
Act 1961 - (The Crimes Act is regularly reprinted in a consolidated form by
LexisNexis NZ)
There
is a chapter on Criminal Law in the Laws of
There
are 2 looseleaf services offering annotated versions of the Crimes Act; these
are:
For
a general text on the subject, see: Principles
of Criminal Law by A. P. Simester, W. J. Brookbanks, and Gerald
Orchard.
At
the time of writing there is no journal devoted to criminal law published in
This
list is by no means definitive: others are available on Westlaw, Lexis,
Heinonline and elsewhere.
Brookers
Criminal Law Library, containing: Adams
on Criminal Law, Brookers Law of
Transportation, Criminal Reports of New Zealand, Misuse of Drugs, and Summary Proceedings (subscription).
Lexisnexis
Butterworths Criminal Library, containing: Abbott
& Thompson District Court Practice, Garrow & Turkington's Criminal Law,
and Hall's Sentencing (subscription)
The
New Zealand Police have a good set of web
pages focusing on various aspects of police work, including an interesting web
space devoted to "e-crime".
.
and a host of other legislation relating to specific aspects of the subject
(see the chapter in the Laws of New
Zealand on Criminal Procedure for
details).
There
is a chapter in the Laws of New Zealand
on Criminal Procedure.
In
the matter of sentencing, see: Hall's
Sentencing by G. G. Hall and Moira Thompson.
A
lot of useful background information may be found on the Ministry of Justice web site.
There
is information available for court users on these web pages.
See
also Brookers and Lexis Criminal Law collections online (see above, under
Criminal Law)
Reflecting
the reality that e-commerce is now a factor within so many branches of law and
commerce, it is not surprising that there is no one chapter on this subject in
the Laws of
This
is a subject enthusiastically embraced by writers in the legal and commercial
fields. A crude search on Te Puna on
'e-commerce' retrieves so many hits that the search engine chastises one for
searching so clumsily. A sample from
The
2 key New Zealand web sites are the New Zealand Government's
E-Commerce Information pages (for policy and initiatives) (under the
auspices of the Ministry of Economic Development), and the linked site (run out of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise)(for
practical business information).
There
is an interesting though scant overview (last updated 2001) of
There
are numerous foreign online resources on this subject; for getting started, see
the
Employment
Relations Act 2000
There
are also a number of other enactments that affect employment relations,
including:
This
list is by no means comprehensive.
The
Laws of New Zealand has a chapter
entitled: Employment.
The
following
The
Department of Labour web site contains information on a broad
range of issues relating to employment, including immigration, community
development, and research on work. The DOL offers a great service in making
available email delivery of its numerous reports, newsletters, and updates from
its subscription service, just a click away from the RHS of the front page.
It
is a helpful source of current information about events and initiatives,
together with access to publications and official reports and statistics. The DOL also hosts a valuable Employment Relations Service for both employers
and employees as part of its suite of online services.
It
has a densely packed home page offering links to all conceivable aspects of the
employment relationship.
Among
other things, the Employment Institutions Information Centre (accessible from
the "Employment Law" link on the RHS of the ERS site) posts free weekly lists
of recent cases determined in the
The
web pages of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
provide a handy hub with links to all
Business NZ is a "national
organisation representing the interests of
Employment Today, a journal published
by Thomson Brookers, has a site where it offers teasers by way of snippets from
articles in recent issues.
Thomson Brookers also publishes Safeguard,
a magazine devoted to health and safety issues in employment.
Thomson Brookers offers an integrated online Employment Library
that includes:
Accident Compensation
Cases, Employment Law, Employment Headnotes, Employment Reports of
Lexisnexis (NZ) also has a collection of employment-related
material online containing:
Employment Law
Bulletin, Mazengarb's Employment Law, and Personal Grievances.
Access
to the International Labour Organisation is available
online.
The
major piece of legislation in this field is the Resource Management Act 1991 -
but this is complemented by numerous other Acts on specific aspects of the
environment. These will be spelt out in
any standard text on the subject.
Examples are:
There
is a confusing plethora of departments and authorities and agencies that are
charged with various clusters of responsibilities in this area. The following will give you some idea of the
complexity of this environment, which is full of overlapping agencies.
The
Department of Conservation is charged with the preservation of our natural
resources, and information about its work may be found here.
You can view its publications, register to receive an email newsletter,
check out places to explore, or download the entire list of walkways. There is access on this site to the entire
archive of DOC's newsletter, ConScience.
The
Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA)
is charged with the responsibility of controlling the introduction of new
plants and animals including genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and new and
existing hazardous substances into
The
Biodiversity site is sponsored by the four main
government agencies with statutory roles in managing and conserving
Renewable
energy is always a hot topic in
Landcare Research is a Crown Research Institute
that prides itself on being
Other
relevant web sites include the Ministry for the Environment,
which offers convenient access to relevant laws and treaties, and information
about current events in this area.
The
Ministry of Fisheries carries information about
its marine biosecurity research programme and is also a very valuable resource
of information about the impact of customary fishing in the
The
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is a position
that exists to review the government's environmental policy. Most of its reports are available online.
The
Environment Court
site links from the Department for Courts, and its pages explain the workings
of the court.
The
Resource Management Law Association of New Zealand
is an organisation of legal professionals working in this field.
The
New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law
at the
There
is a New Zealand Climate Change website offering
information on this subject, including information about government policy and
the Kyoto Protocol.
The
The
purpose of Quality Planning (QP)
is to "promote best practice in the development of plans under
RMA-NET is "the online source for legal decisions affecting
Finally,
the Te Puna Web Directory
is a very good source of links to resources in this subject area.
Brookers
Online has two relevant electronic libraries: Resource Library, containing Gazette Cases Summaries, Resource Management, and Resource Management Cases and Materials;
and the Fisheries Library, containing Fisheries
Law, and Fisheries Cases
As
this subject is taught, it is mostly confined to the study of trusts, wills,
and the administration of estates, and these subjects have associated
legislation. But the equitable
jurisdiction is much wider than that, including equitable remedies and other
judge-made law that finds its way into most legal subject areas.
There
are chapters on Trusts and Wills in the Laws of
English
texts are relevant - see, for example:
There
is a chapter on Evidence in the Laws of
Cross on Evidence is available via
Lexisnexis (NZ) Online by subscription
In
Some
key Acts are:
There
is no single chapter in the Laws of New
Zealand that covers family law. Rather, the divisions are covered separately,
as: Children and Young Persons, Family
Protection and Other Family Property Arrangements, Husband and Wife,
Matrimonial and Relationship Property, and Parent and Child.
There
are 2 standard looseleaf services on family law:
Other
works include:
The
Family Law Section of the New Zealand Law Society is an active association, and
its web pages provide not only a communication focus for its members, and a
directory of members of the Section, but is also a source of information
through the provision of free online copies of articles from The Family Advocate, the members'
quarterly journal.
The
web pages of the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services
give access to "news and information about our services and community
partnerships, as well as advice and resources to support our vision of safe
children, strong families and stronger communities. Other information includes
our organisation and structure, the legislation we administer, the Ministers we
work to and social work recruitment."
The pull-down menu of "Find it fast" is a good place to go if you are in
a hurry to locate succinct advice on such problems as abuse, adoption, and how
to get funding.
The
Family Court website is clearly set out,
and offers general family law information as well as resources such as legislation,
forms, brochures and reports. There is
also a collection of recent noteworthy judgments from the Family Court,
arranged by subject.
The
Ministry of Youth Affairs is a focal point for
numerous activities involving young people, including information about the
Youth Parliament, Youth Councils and the like, as well as providing policy and
issues papers and other publications on statistics, policy, and a great deal
more. Currently topical issues such as
youth suicide get extensive cover, and information is provided and feedback
sought from the community.
The
Legal Services Agency and ASB Bank have sponsored a site devoted to youth law.
Among other things, this is a source of free legal advice to young
people.
The
Youth Court web site contains useful
information for youth, family, and victims who may use the court and are
unfamiliar with it or with the youth justice system.
The
Office of the Commissioner for Children operates under the
Children, Young Persons and their Families Act 1989 to "Monitor and review
policy and practice under the Children, Young Persons and Their Families
Act." There is assistance for members of
the public who wish to make a complaint about alleged mistreatment of children,
and an index to publications, some of which are available online. The Office also keeps the community informed
about its activities through its pages.
One
of the planks in the policy platform of the United Future Party during the 2002
election campaign was the establishment of a Families Commission. The Families Commission Act was subsequently
enacted in December 2003, and there is now a web site representing the work of the new
Commission to the public.
There
is a Family library within Lexisnexis
(NZ) Online, containing Family Law
Service: Commentary and Legislation,
Brookers
Online likewise offer a Family Law Library,
containing the Family Reports of New
At the time of writing, the only official source of
There are also two commercial electronic versions of
the
Since 1998, the Parliamentary Counsel Office has been
labouring at the task of generating an official consolidated version of the
statutes, which may be cited in Court in the same way as only the paper version
may at present. This project fell upon
hard times, overran its budget, lurched into technical difficulties, and has
only recently resumed work. You can read
about the progress of this magnum opus at http://www.pco.parliament.govt.nz/pal/.
In the meantime, since the PCO had undertaken to
provide free public access to online consolidated legislation by 2002, New
Zealanders have had free access to one of the commercial versions (without all
the attachments) at http://www.legislation.govt.nz/
or via NZLII (see below).
The two series of general reports in
Free access to legislation (not official) can be found
here.
Free access to case law is only very slowly coming on
stream. At present, probably the
quickest access for the public is on the web pages of the various courts (see
under Courts and Tribunals, above). The
newly established NZLII (on the AUSTLII/WORLDLII model) is
gradually gaining traction, and now offers a single access point for Court of
Appeal and Supreme Court decisions. High
Court decisions are much more problematic.
The High Court web site
merely offers access to what are enigmatically named "Judicial Decisions of
Public Interest". There is also an
apologetic-sounding offering of links
to other sources for judicial decisions.
Since the mid-1980s there have been two indigenous
databases of case law digests which evolved out of a need to come to grips with
the large number of unreported judgments in circulation, and the perceived
slowness of law reporting. These are Briefcase (now a part of the Thomson
Brookers suite of electronic resources), and LINX, now available as LINXPlus
as part of the LexisNexis (NZ) online suite.
Each performs a valuable function at a time when reliable timely access
to full text online decisions is still problematic. Both are commercial products, and only
available on subscription.
The two best-known publications for general legal
current awareness are The Capital Letter,
a weekly publication summarising recent noteworthy cases, new legislation,
Bills and Regulations, together with a brief review of legal and political
affairs, and Butterworths Current Law,
a fortnightly publication covering similar ground.
(see
also Local Government)
The
This
is the official newspaper of the government.
Official notices and proclamations are published in the Gazette, as are various species of
tertiary legislation - some of which are to be found in no other place. The New Zealand Gazette
is now mercifully available online through the Department of Internal Affairs,
with archives back to 2000 (Notices back to 1993).
See
also the section on Parliament below
See
also Chapters 1 and 3 above.
The
Laws of New Zealand has chapters on Parliament and Elections.
The
New Zealand Official Yearbook,
prepared by the Register General, 1893 - is a good source of information on
facts, figures, and the
The
Directory of Official Information,
1983 - (also available online via the Ministry of Justice website)
is a treasure chest of information about the agencies of government.
Also
helpful are Introduction to New Zealand
Government: a guide to finding out about government in New Zealand, its
institutions, structures and activities, by J. B. Ringer, and Parliamentary Practice in New Zealand,
by
Government
is a great publisher of information.
There are annual reports of government departments, directories,
statistics, parliamentary and legislative information, media statements, policy
statements and information from local authorities, to name but a few. A great deal of this information is now
readily available to the public from the web pages of the individual agencies
of government.
The
Appendix to the Journals of the House of
Representatives, 1859 - is a pivotal source of government information,
including annual reports of Government departments, select committee reports,
international agreements, treaties, and conventions, reports of Commissions of
Enquiry and Royal Commissions.
Such
a work as An Introduction to New Zealand
Government, by J. B. Ringer (Christchurch, Hazard Press, 1991), although
now considerably out of date in some respects, is still a valuable tool for
bringing all the myriad activities of government into some sort of rational
order for the researcher.
There
is a government portal that connects you to central
and local government services. There are
directories by subject and by the name of the agencies, with links to the
services offered. There is also an online government directory available on
subscription (it is also available as an annual volume in print). It contains full listings for all government,
parliament, and state sector organisations.
It is very comprehensive, and is constantly updated throughout the year.
Te
Puna (The National Library) has a most useful directory on its
pages for government, law and politics. This offers among other things very
convenient access to all the web pages of local bodies. You can also use the pages of Local Government New Zealand to locate information of this sort.
Government
agencies likely to be of greatest interest to lawyers include, i.a.:
The Crown Law Office. This organisation provides legal advice to
the Crown. Further details of its
history and function may be found on the website. At the time of writing, it carries copies of
reports on the replacement of the Privy Council, but there is also an archive
of previous reports, articles, opinions, and briefing papers.
The
Law Commission is government-funded but
operates independently to review areas of the law that need reforming or
updating. It publishes about 4 series of
publications, including preparatory papers that invite public discussion, and
also final recommendations to government.
These are all conveniently available online, although they may also be
purchased in hard copy from the Commission.
The
Legal Services Agency is responsible for ensuring equal access
to justice for all New Zealanders, and is charged with ensuring that legal aid
is applied consistently. Details of its
services, along with downloadable documents, are available from their website. At the time of writing, there is an article
introducing
The
portal of New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
is dedicated to "providing information about
Information
about the electoral system and the election process
may also be found online. This is
particularly lively at the time of writing, with an election due in the next
few months.
The
Department of Internal Affairs administers such matters as passports, the
register of births, deaths, and marriages, local government and much more. The New
Zealand Gazette is also published and available on this well-stocked web
site (see above).
For
foreign government sites, see Governments on the WWW.
Apart
form the usual news sources, which are discussed elsewhere, there are three
services in particular that serve this area of interest very well.
The Capital Letter is a paper newsletter
that is published weekly. Although its
principal value to practitioners has traditionally been the summary of cases,
it also contains an editorial by either Jack Hodder or Penny Pepperell: 'A
weekly review of administration, legislation & law', that discusses some
topical matter of interest, and there is also a 'General Review' section,
containing notes of publications and events in the public sector.
Transtasman is also published weekly, both in
paper and online. The online version
contains some useful free information.
It covers current events in politics, business, financial, and farming. A valuable additional feature is the
Australian content, particularly of interest to those with transtasman trading
interests or research interests in CER.
Other
electronic newsletters on public issues include Inside Wellington, a weekly report on Parliament, legislation and
central/regional government policy. This
has no central webpage, but is available on subscription from davidn@insidewelly.co.nz.
Another is Molesworth & Featherston, available both in a
free summarised version, and a fuller model.
A
number of enactments impact on this area of study. Principal Acts are:
.
but many others are indirectly effective in this area.
There
are chapters on Health, Medical
Practitioners, and Mental Health in
the Laws of
The
Health and Disability Commissioner's home page - this Office
administers the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumer Rights, which
is also available online. An archive of
the Commissioner's opinions may be viewed, dating back to 1996, with case notes
for 1997, and 2001 - 2003.
There
is a Mental Health Commission that offers assistance
to consumers of mental health services, and information about the Commission's
work. From this website there is a
helpful cluster of links to other organisations whose portfolios intersect with
that of the Commission and with health issues in general, including:
·
The New Zealand Health
Information Service
·
New Zealand Medicines and
Medical Devices Safety Authority (which contains handy regulatory
information);
·
The Medical Council of New Zealand, and
others.
The
Health Research Council of New Zealand is charged with
purchasing and co-ordinating health research in
MEDLINEplus is a vast American source of
information on health and medical topics.
There are also helpful reference tools linked to the front page,
including a medical dictionary and encyclopaedia, plus really up to the minute
current awareness snippets on hot topics.
Pharmac is the pharmaceutical agency charged
with the responsibility to use the available funding to determine best value
medicines for
Both
LEXIS and Westlaw have sizeable libraries devoted to medicine and the law.
The
Laws of New Zealand has a chapter on Immigration. It also contains information about refugees.
The
New Zealand Immigration web site is a
well-organised and clearly set out site, with plenty of information for
would-be migrants, as well as for New Zealanders seeking information about
policies and implementation. There are
links to information on the skilled migrant categories and students, and also to
the Operations Manual, all from the home page (LHS).
The
Removal Review Authority is an independent
judicial body that hears appeals on the papers of people who have been required
to leave
The
Residence Appeal Authority hears appeals
on the papers from unsuccessful applicants for
New Zealand Refugee Law is a website 'dedicated to
The
Refugee Status Appeals Authority is a site
organised along the same lines as the Residence Appeal Authority, with a search
engine providing access to its decisions and to those of the High Court and
Court of Appeal.
The
Refugee Resettlement Service, '
There
is a chapter on Insurance in the Laws of New Zealand.
The
Office of the Insurance and Savings Ombudsman
was established in 1994 to offer an independent and impartial disputes
resolution service between complainants and participating insurers in relation
to matters involving no more than $100,000.
The website offers guidelines for making complaints, and publishes a
downloadable newsletter, and other publications. The effectiveness of the Office is subject to
review by the Retirement Commissioner.
The
Earthquake Commission offers such exciting but ominous
information as the time and location of the most recent
The
Insurance and Superannuation Unit (ISU) of the
Ministry of Economic Development supervises the management of registered
superannuation schemes and ensures insurance companies comply with the
statutory obligations under the Life Insurance Act 1908 and Insurance
Companies' Deposits Act 1953. The
website offers rating schedules, forms and fees, and a selection of related
sites in
The
Insurance Council of New Zealand
represents fire and general insurers in
The
Investment Savings and Insurance Association (ISI) represents
investment and life insurance companies in
The
Intellectual Property Reports, 1983 -
(paper, and via Lexisnexis Online) although published in
For
current developments in New Zealand Intellectual Property law, see the website of Andrew Brown QC, co-author of The Law of Intellectual Property in New
Zealand. This provides a useful list
of recent cases, with summaries, plus notes on recent legislative changes.
There
are 5 chapters in The Laws of New Zealand,
each dealing with a different aspect of the subject: Intellectual Property: Confidential Information, Intellectual Property:
Copyright, Intellectual Property: Fair Trading, Intellectual Property: Registered
Design, and Intellectual Property:
Trade Marks. There are a further two
chapters on Patents and Inventions.
The
Intellectual Property Office
of New Zealand (IPONZ) registers trade marks, patents and
designs. You can search the databases of
registered trade marks, patents and designs, and also apply to register
online. Further information is available
through the Information link, and includes access to relevant legislation and
international instruments.
Patent
and trade mark attorneys Pipers website is a
treasure chest of useful information, whose scope is much wider than might be
imagined. It offers a lively and still
developing collection of
For
current developments in New Zealand Intellectual Property law, see the website of Andrew Brown QC, co-author of The Law of Intellectual Property in New
Zealand. This provides a useful list
of recent cases, with summaries, plus notes on recent legislative changes.
The
web pages of a leading New Zealand
intellectual property law firm offers current information of all
kinds relevant to the New Zealand IP scene, including newsletters with both a
New Zealand and an international flavour, news, and a cluster of useful links.
James and Wells, patent attorneys, have a well-stocked
website, directed at foreigners needing an overview of
There
is growing interest in the progress of The Crown and Flora and Fauna:
Legislation, Policies, and Practices 1983 - 1998, or 'WAI 262',
the research relating to a claim before the Waitangi Tribunal relating to Maori
interests in indigenous species, among other things.
Meanwhile,
the Plant Variety Rights Office administers the
Plant Variety Rights Act 1987 under which grants of plant variety rights may be
issued to breeders for their new plant varieties. The website contains information and forms.
There
is an Intellectual Property section
on the ubiquitous Ministry of Economic Development site. The Ministry is responsible for policy
relating to the protection of intellectual property. Through IPONZ (see above), the Ministry grants
patents and registers trademarks and designs and through the Plant Variety Rights Office (see above), the Ministry grants
plant variety rights. This is a site
packed with information both for those in the industry and for consumers.
The
Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand
Inc is mainly of interest to members, although it includes some
extracts form its journal Intellectual
Property Forum that may be of interest to researchers.
The
World Intellectual Property Organisation is the
hub for all IP activity on the international stage.
There
are around 150 Acts administered by the Ministry of Justice, although some are
jointly administered with other agencies.
The list is available on the Ministry's web site and in the Directory of Official Information.
There
are chapters in the Laws of New Zealand
on Courts, Juries, Legal Services,
Police, Prisons & Enforcement of Sentences, and Sentencing.
A
keyword search in any law library catalogue on, for example, 'criminal justice
The
Ministry of Justice web pages are a valuable
source of information regarding the work of the ministry and about this sector
as a whole. This includes the latest
statistics on conviction and sentencing (and an archive of previous
statistics), much loved by researchers in many disciplines. Consistent with the move to restorative
justice, there are reports and information briefs on victims' rights, under
'Victims' and 'Penalties and Restitution'.
Another current hot topic is that of youth drinking, and there are
statistics available on this.
The
present Ministry of Justice was formed as of
The
Ministry works collaboratively with the Department of Corrections, which, as one might
expect, administers the sentences of people convicted in the courts. It also carries out research on various
aspects of the corrections process, including statistics and forecasts, and
publishes news, reports and other publications online.
Another
government entity with which the Ministry works collaboratively is the New Zealand Police. The
Police web pages contain news about crime and police activities, seasonal
advice (e.g., traffic tips for the Christmas holiday season), annual reports
and statistics.
The
principal Acts dealing with the main areas of this subject are:
The
Laws of New Zealand contains chapters
on Easements, Land Law, and Landlord and Tenant.
There
are four looseleaf services providing for this sector: