LAWS101 - SEM1

• Tikanga is the "first law of New Zealand"

  And can be defined as the set of values, principles, understandings, practices, norms and mechanisms from which a person or community can determine the correct action in te ao Māori
• The 2 categories of lawyers are

  1. Solicitors
  2. Barristers
• Barristers do less court work but more providing advice to clients asking for help

  Solicitors do more court work and provide less advice to clients asking for help
• What are the 3 branches of law in NZ

  1. The Executive
  2. The Legislature
  3. The Judiciary
• The Executive = The Government

  They have the role of formulating policy and administering laws through the day to day running of the country - They run the country
• The Legislature = Parliament

  They have the role of legislation/law making
• The Judiciary = The Courts

  They have the role of interpreting and applying the law in courts
• Parliament is a democratic body and therefor represent us - we vote them in/ decide who they are
• Parliment/Legislature is soverign which means it can, in principle, pass any law that it likes

  This means Parliments laws are supreme and other branches cannot overide their laws
• The main restriction of parliments supremacy is voting because we can vote MP's out of parliment and we decide who we give parlimentary supremacy
• There is a difference between Parliment and Government
• Select committees are MP's from each party examining issues or proposed new laws in detail as well as hearing issues from the public before reporting back to the House of Representatives
• Government does not pass the law

  Parliament does pass the law
• The Executive (Government) is made up of: Ministers, Government agencies/ departments
• The Legislature (Parliment) is made up of MP's, The Govenor General and the House of Representatives
• The Judiciary is made up of the courts, the judges and the bench
• The Government forumlates policy and the Parliment makes legislation
• The most independant branch is the Judiciary as they are thought to have judicial independence

  This judicial independence is the idea that the judiciary are not beholden to the other branches of the Government
• The Judiciary + Executive interact in judicial review proceedings where the courts scrutinise executive action
• The Judiciary + Legislature branches interact sometimes when legislation is vauge or ambiguious which requires judicial intepretation for a resolution
• The Executive + Legislature branches interact when the executive might, when administering legislation, soften or shape its impact
• The Legislature + The Executive interact when members of the Legislature hold the executive to account by asking questions in Parliament.
• English common law was trying to either get rid of Tikanga or to assimilate it to become more like the English common law
• The English common law impacted

  • Land: used to have all ownership of land but now only 5%
  • Language: used to be spoken everywhere but then acts of english parliament were cast to stop Maori from being spoken
  • Health: diseases were brought over by the English people which Maori didn't previously have exposure or immunity strength to - many died or got very sick
  • Social structures: It was hard to maintain social structures/ friendliness with so much loss of resources
• Our legal system today has english foundations but also is different.

  Today, we are not exaclty the same as England legal systems
• NZ legal system is similar to English legal systems through similar institutions and methods (lawmaking by an elected legislature, trial by Jury in the courts and precedent based decision making through court rather than reliance on a comprehensive written code)
• The NZ Legal system is also different to the English legal system through:

  • Aspects of our legal system are simplier - for example; no court of equity
  • We have total sovereignty over our laws
  • We have a unicameral legislature unlike England
  • We never adopted the strong distinction between barrister/ solicitor - we have more flexibility in our legal profession
• Function of courts and juries is: Determining criminal responsibility, resolving criminal disputes between individuals and helping constrain government power
• Courts are essential in our society because they help maintain a social order
• The hierarchy of NZ courts is:

  District court --> High Court --> Court of Appeal --> Supreme Court --> Parliament
• Our Parliament does the following:

  • Represents the people - through being elected by us as we vote every 3 years
  • Holds the Executive to account - through question time, through scrutinizing
  • Debates Bills and whether to pass them into law - yes or no
• The Governor General is Dame Cindy Keroh
• Parliment = Govenor General and House of Reps

  House of Reps = Only MP's, no governor general
• Simply, the steps of a bill getting converted into a law is:

  • Introduction
  • First reading
  • Select committee
  • Second reading
  • Committee of the whole House
  • Third reading
  • Royal assent.
• The process of a bill being passed as law is considered as democratic

  Practises which reflect this democratic nature are:

  • Bill going to Select Committees - collection of members of parliament receiving selections from the public 
  • Elected representatives there debating through the many stages - enable close scrutiny
  • Bills are debated by MPs, who we elect
  • Multiple debates occur, enabling close scrutiny
  • The public can share their views at select committee
• Urgency is declared by Parliament and can remain for as long as needed. It means that bills can pass through all of the stages at once very quickly - eg; skipping select committees
• Parliament having the power to pass any laws they like is refered to as Parliamentary supremacy
• Our unicameral parliament means it only holds one chamber known as the house of representatives
• We did originally have 2 chambers but we got rid of it as it didn't reflect the size and needs of our small country
• Delegated legislation is where Parliament expressely gives the power of making less legislation to the executive