Unique New Zealand Laws

In 1865, an Native Land Court was established to “define Maori land rights according to Maori custom and translate these customary rights or titles into land titles recognized by European law”. [18] It has since been heavily criticized for being used as a means of driving Maori off their land. Some of the problems lay in the court itself – they held trials in English and in towns far from the Maori colonies, judges with insufficient knowledge of Maori customs – while others had more to do with the laws it applied. For example, for many decades, the land law did not recognize that an entire hapu owned its land, and land ownership was placed in the hands of a few people. In 1954 it was renamed Māori Land Court and has been fundamentally reformed since the nineteenth century. Until the mid-twentieth century, it also dealt with Maori adoptions. Although the treaty was never incorporated into New Zealand local law,[3] its provisions had already been transposed into the Act in the Land Claims Ordinance 1841 and the Native Rights Act 1865. [4] However, in Wi Parata v. Bishop of Wellington in 1877, Justice Prendergast held that the treaty was a “mere nullity” with respect to the transfer of Maori sovereignty to the United Kingdom. [5] This remained the legal orthodoxy at least until the 1970s. [6] Maori have since argued that Prendergast`s decision, and the laws based on it later, were a politically convenient and deliberate ploy to legitimize the confiscation of Maori land and other resources.

[7] That`s right. There are strange laws in New Zealand. This was an important political issue in the late nineteenth century. In the early days of New Zealand society, as in other countries around the world, women were excluded from political participation. However, things changed in the Kiwi Society and women made progress, women campaigned for women`s suffrage and after years of effort, things started to improve. At the forefront of this campaign was the Women`s Christian Temperance Union, which also campaigned against alcohol and organized several petitions for women`s suffrage. The largest petition they submitted had nearly 32,000 signatures and it seemed like nearly one in four women had signed it and this achievement was the result of years of effort led by Kate Sheppard. Kate Sheppard`s contribution to the history of women`s suffrage in New Zealand was honoured on the $10 bill. Although laws allowing women to vote had been passed several times, they had been narrowly defeated.

In September 1893, the law was finally passed and New Zealand became the first country in the world to grant its women the right to vote in national elections. In November 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to grant its women the right to vote in general elections. In other parts of the world that were democracies, including Britain, which guaranteed women full suffrage in 1928, and the United States, which granted women the right to vote in 1920, women did not have the right to vote until World War I. Wellington-based lawyer and legal commentator Graeme Edgeler took a look at some of New Zealand`s other strange laws. This article takes a detailed look at New Zealand`s top ten policies and laws. Compared to other countries, New Zealand is pretty good at updating its laws, and we`ve gotten rid of some strange ones. According to official confirmation under New Zealand law, the Whanganui River has exactly the same rights as a human. The local Maori tribe fought for 140 years for recognition of their river.

In a world first, the river has a legal personality with all the rights and obligations as a real person. Damaging or abusing the river is no different from harming the tribe or any other New Zealander. They are one and the same. It is a unique status that recognizes the importance of the river to the people of the region. This article was written by Ashutosh Singh, a BA student. LLB (Hons) at Amity Law School, Amity University, Kolkata. The article discusses some of the best policies and laws in New Zealand right now that make it the unique country and the 8th happiest country in the world. New Zealand contract law was originally derived from the English model. Since 1969, however, this has changed through a number of Acts of Parliament, and New Zealand`s contract law is now “broad”. differ from other legal systems.” [24] The main difference between New Zealand contract law is the wide margin of appreciation given to the courts in awarding remedies. Although these amendments were initially rejected because of concerns that they would make the settlement of contractual disputes unpredictable and increase the number of disputes, it is generally accepted that this has not happened and that the laws are working satisfactorily.

[24] Modern society benefits greatly from the productive work of its citizens, but accidents do occur, and whether society or government should compensate them is a question in such cases. The answer is New Zealand`s unique no-fault accident compensation law. In New Zealand, victims of injured accidents receive government-funded compensation, which in turn waives the right to sue for personal injury, except in rare cases of reckless driving. Whether you have uranium in the hangar or land in the Waitemata port area in Manukau you want to keep on the lookout for New Zealand`s strange laws! Each country has its own legal particularities and New Zealand is no different. Leslie Lipson, New Zealand`s first professor of political science, wrote in 1948 that if New Zealanders chose to erect a statue that embodied the nation`s political views, it would be a statue of equality. And that says it all, that New Zealanders regard equality, not freedom, as the most important political value and the most compelling goal for the society they have always sought and protected. On the contrary, New Zealanders like to see themselves as practical people, ready to take on any challenge given to them, with good life skills and a cooperative and positive spirit. This is so evident in some of the policies and laws passed by the people and government of New Zealand. New Zealand is not a great or powerful country, but it has always inspired others by leading by example, idealism and rational innovation. All this and more is reflected in the fact that New Zealand is ranked in the United Nations` 2019 World Happiness Report as the 8th happiest country in the world for the seventh consecutive year, the only country outside Europe to have made the top 10. There are still a lot of unused laws that still make sense.

No one has ever been charged with possessing a nuclear weapon, but it`s probably a good idea that it`s illegal. Every country in the world has its own collection of strange laws. New Zealand is no exception. Our country has a lot of strange laws that you`d be surprised to see still in effect in 2018. Some are new, some are old, but one wonders how they were regulated by law in the first place. However, there are specific intentions behind some of these laws – they make (slightly) more sense if you understand the context and values of the region. The New Zealand Bill of Rights was enacted in 1990 to reaffirm the fundamental rights and freedoms set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. [20] Although the Charter of Rights is not a general law to which all other statutes are subject, judges are required to interpret other statutes so that they are consistent with the Charter of Rights to the extent possible.