Learning Objectives

This module deals with the New Zealand legal system. By the end of this module, you will be able to locate:

• online guides to the New Zealand legal system
• New Zealand Bills, Acts and Regulations
• sources for New Zealand legislative history
• New Zealand case law.

Introduction

New Zealand is not only one of Australia's closest neighbours, but it is also a useful source of comparative law. The influence of English precedents and legislative models is perhaps even stronger in New Zealand than in Australia. It was not until 2002 that New Zealand finally abolished appeals to the Privy Council. As in Australia, however, the situation is changing. English decisions are still highly persuasive, but New Zealand courts have a growing interest in legal precedents from a wider range of jurisdictions.

General guides

There are a number of online guides to the New Zealand legal system. Two of the most useful are:

• An Introduction to New Zealand Law and Sources of Legal Information. This is Margaret Greville's exhaustive guide to New Zealand law. This material was last updated in 2005.
• New Zealand. The Law Library of the United States Congress issued this guide to the Web-based sources of New Zealand law in 2008.

New Zeland Legal Information Institute (NZLII)

The New Zealand Legal Information Institute (NZLII) provides free access to a large number of full text databases on New Zealand law. Also useful is the New Zealand catalogue at the WorldLII site.

Legal encyclopedia

The Laws of New Zealand (LONZ) covers all aspects of the law in New Zealand. Although the series was completed in 2003, updates are issued on a quarterly basis. This source is available in print or through LexisNexis.

Constitution

Like the UK Constitution, the New Zealand Constitution is largely unwritten. The sources of New Zealand constitutional law include:

• relevant New Zealand legislation (including the Constitution Act 1986, the Bill of Rights Act 1990, the Electoral Act 1993 and the Human Rights Act 1993)
• historic English statutes (such as the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1688)
• the Treaty of Waitangi (1840).
• the decisions of New Zealand courts
• constitutional conventions and the rule of law.

Legislation

Bills

New Zealand has a unicameral parliament. There is no upper house, only a House of Representatives. In addition, New Zealand has a unitary rather than a federal system.This means that the legislative process is simpler than in Australia, although similar in outline. A comprehensive description of the legislative process is available from the New Zealand Parliament site.

The New Zealand Legislation site provides a searchable database of recent and current Bills.

Acts

The full text of current and recent Acts of the New Zealand Parliament are available from the New Zealand Legislation site. This site also includes a valuable point-in-time feature.

Regulations

The text of most current NZ regulations are available from the New Zealand Legislation site. This site does not include deemed regulations. This class includes land transport rules, civil aviation rules, and a wide variety of other rules, codes, and other legislative instruments. Deemed regulations are available from the Parliamentary Counsel Office.

Legislative history

Recent trends in statutory interpretation in New Zealand are similar to those in Australia. New Zealand courts have moved towards a purposive interpretation in preference to traditional common-law approaches. In New Zealand, the purposive approach is embodied in s 5(1) of the Interpretation Act 1999.

The types of material available include Explanatory Notes, Select Committee Reports, Departmental Reports, Parliamentary Debates and Second Reading Speeches.

The Parliamentary Business page at the NZ Parliament site provides links to these resources, including recent Hansards.

Case Law

New Zealand Court System

The NZ Supreme Court is the highest court in New Zealand. In general, the Supreme Court will only hear appeals coming from the NZ Court of Appeal. The NZ Court of Appeals normally only hears appeals from the NZ High Court or a District Court. The High Court sits in main centres throughout the country. At the base of the court system are the District Courts, which are courts of first instance for most criminal and civil matters. In addition to these courts, there are courts of special jurisdiction, including the Maori Land Court, the Maori Appellate Court, the Environment Court, the Family Court, and the Youth Court. As in Australia, New Zealand has established a number of Administrative Tribunals to hear cases relating to administrative decisions.

Detailed information about the NZ Court System is available from the Courts of New Zealand site and the site of the New Zealand Ministry of Justice.

New Zealand case law is relatively easy to find. Some major sources are:

• New Zealand Law Reports. This is the official report series for New Zealand and includes decisions from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, NZ Supreme Court, NZ Court of Appeal, NZ High Court and NZ Court Martial Appeal Court. This source is available through Lexis Nexis.
• New Zealand District Court Reports. This report series, covering the District Courts, is available in print and from Lexis Nexis.
• New Zealand Family Law Reports. This specialised series is available in print and from Lexis Nexis.

There are also a number of other online sources:

• AustLII. AustLII includes the decisions of the NZ Court of Appeal.
• Judicial Opinions Online. This New Zealand source includes all Supreme Court, Court of Appeal (2003– ) and High Court (2005– ) decisions.
• NZLII. NZLII includes searchable databases of the decisions of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and High Court.
• University of Waikato Library. This site includes a directory of online NZ court decisions.

Printed references to case law

The fastest way to older cases in print is the Abridgement of New Zealand Case Law (1861– ). The Abridgement is a consolidated digest of all cases reported in the New Zealand Law Reports. This series consists of 18 text volumes, five permanent supplements and annual cumulative supplements. The Table of Cases gives the user a quick reference to every case reported in the official series.

Annotations to the New Zealand Statutes is a loose-leaf service which provides the case law relating to NZ statutes. It covers statute and case law from 1861 onwards.

LexisNexis New Zealand

LexisNexis New Zealand provides access to a range of New Zealand legislation, case law and commentary, including:

• Australian and New Zealand Citator to UK Reports. This source permits to ready access to UK cases cited in New Zealand law reports.
• Casebase. This is a comprehensive case citator covering more than 60 Australian, New Zealand and overseas report series.
• Linxplus. LexisNexis New Zealand bills Linxplus as the ultimate online research too for New Zealand case law. This source includes: over 70,000 case summaries of Supreme Court, Privy Council, Court of Appeal, High Court and lower court judgments; over 32,000 judgements in searchable full-text including every judgement of the New Zealand Supreme Court; links to reported cases in online law reports such as the New Zealand Law report and All England Law reports; links to relevant sections of statutes and regulations; and cross-links to lower or higher court decisions.
• New Zealand Case Citator. This source includes a searchable database of New Zealand reported cases from 1847 onwards. It includes the history and subsequent treatement of each case.

Summary

This module dealt with the New Zealand legal system. It covered the following topics:

• locating online guides to the New Zealand legal system
• finding New Zealand Bills, Acts and Regulations
• finding sources for the legislative history of New Zealand Acts
• locating New Zealand case law.