Laws101
Aotearoa NZ Legal System
The Aotearoa New Zealand Legal System :
English Laws Act 1858
The laws of England as existing on 14 January 1840, so far as applicable to the circumstances
of New Zealand, be deemed and taken to have been in force therein on and after that day,
and shall continue to be therein applied in the administration of justice accordingly
Makes clear that all of the laws of England as of 1840 became the laws of NZ, through this
English laws act, this puts into statute that NZ is a colony of England and Wales
The day we became a colony, incorporating laws of england and wales, sources are custom
case law and legislation. That is how the NZ legal system came about.
There was law prior to 1840 (Tikanga Māori)
This law came in ignoring previous laws
This applies to everyone in NZ, the citizens, residents and visitors, as well as the institutions
and organisations that operate here, the artificial persons.
Legal Family: Common Law System
Traditionally [British Origins]
Features of the system -
Adversarial - We have a judge that sits as the neutral decision, with two parties sitting before
them acting in opposition to one another as adversaries. For example, in private law
adversaries can be thought of as patent and defendant, in criminal law is prosecution and
defendant. Two opposing lawyers advocating for their client.
Unwritten constitution/pouhere - We don’t have one single document to go to and identify
as a constitution. The US has a written legal documents. NZ and UK don’t have that but we
still have constitutional principles, we just find them in a variety of sources, we can pull them
from different cases, from statutory law and legislation. Example, the Treaty of Waitangi act
1975, Constitution act 1986, the NZ Bill of Rights 1990, Human rights act of 1993
, Case-based system
o Source of law= case law
o NOTE : Use Case law and common law as terms interchangeably, stemming from
common law family, main distinguishing form or source of law was case law, people
get lazy and refer as common law (case law is so massive that distinguishes common
law from civil law family)
o Statutes have replaced case law for most part as most prevalent source of law, we
have started to codify our laws into statutes, however case law is still important,
existing in NZ and Aussie ex alongside statutory law
o Law/Ture develops through cases
o Emphasis on adjudication - Because if law develops through cases, you get cases by
encouraging adjudication, bringing something to courts to be decided
The NZ legal system is located as part of a legal family known as the common law
system/family, it sits within a broader family of laws
Dark blue is the other countries in the common law family, the legal tradition that spread
with the UK as it colonized various places
Grey belong to different legal family of civil law system/tradition, looks very different
Light blue, mix of the two
The Aotearoa New Zealand Legal System Sources of Law/Ture:
Case Law
Sir William Blackstone= ‘the ancient unwritten law of the kingdom’ Telling us case law is not
in a single place, common to all land. It is ancient, 1066 when William the conqueror
conquered the inhabitant of England, we start getting England in its common form - time
when system of common law family started to develop. Tells us case law is unwritten, not
meaning cases aren't written down, but unlike a statute book where you can pull up and acct
and see the provisions, case law doesn’t have a place where every rule of law from cases has
been pulled and laid down.
We will learnt to read cases and case analysis, pulling out the rule from the case
Black’s Law Dictionary= ‘ the body of law derived from judicial decisions, rather than from
statutes of constitutions’
The Aotearoa New Zealand Legal System Sources of Law/Ture:
Legislation aka Statutory law
A statute is written law passed by a legislative body
Only Parliament/Pāremata can pass law in New Zealand only parliament has the sovereign
power to make law, statutes are the main source of law in NZ, it is the modern trend, writing
down and codifying laws into statute, trend beginning in early 1900s
Parliament/Pāremata = House of Representatives + The Sovereign [Queen who is
represented in New Zealand by the Governor General]
Aotearoa NZ Legal System
The Aotearoa New Zealand Legal System :
English Laws Act 1858
The laws of England as existing on 14 January 1840, so far as applicable to the circumstances
of New Zealand, be deemed and taken to have been in force therein on and after that day,
and shall continue to be therein applied in the administration of justice accordingly
Makes clear that all of the laws of England as of 1840 became the laws of NZ, through this
English laws act, this puts into statute that NZ is a colony of England and Wales
The day we became a colony, incorporating laws of england and wales, sources are custom
case law and legislation. That is how the NZ legal system came about.
There was law prior to 1840 (Tikanga Māori)
This law came in ignoring previous laws
This applies to everyone in NZ, the citizens, residents and visitors, as well as the institutions
and organisations that operate here, the artificial persons.
Legal Family: Common Law System
Traditionally [British Origins]
Features of the system -
Adversarial - We have a judge that sits as the neutral decision, with two parties sitting before
them acting in opposition to one another as adversaries. For example, in private law
adversaries can be thought of as patent and defendant, in criminal law is prosecution and
defendant. Two opposing lawyers advocating for their client.
Unwritten constitution/pouhere - We don’t have one single document to go to and identify
as a constitution. The US has a written legal documents. NZ and UK don’t have that but we
still have constitutional principles, we just find them in a variety of sources, we can pull them
from different cases, from statutory law and legislation. Example, the Treaty of Waitangi act
1975, Constitution act 1986, the NZ Bill of Rights 1990, Human rights act of 1993
, Case-based system
o Source of law= case law
o NOTE : Use Case law and common law as terms interchangeably, stemming from
common law family, main distinguishing form or source of law was case law, people
get lazy and refer as common law (case law is so massive that distinguishes common
law from civil law family)
o Statutes have replaced case law for most part as most prevalent source of law, we
have started to codify our laws into statutes, however case law is still important,
existing in NZ and Aussie ex alongside statutory law
o Law/Ture develops through cases
o Emphasis on adjudication - Because if law develops through cases, you get cases by
encouraging adjudication, bringing something to courts to be decided
The NZ legal system is located as part of a legal family known as the common law
system/family, it sits within a broader family of laws
Dark blue is the other countries in the common law family, the legal tradition that spread
with the UK as it colonized various places
Grey belong to different legal family of civil law system/tradition, looks very different
Light blue, mix of the two
The Aotearoa New Zealand Legal System Sources of Law/Ture:
Case Law
Sir William Blackstone= ‘the ancient unwritten law of the kingdom’ Telling us case law is not
in a single place, common to all land. It is ancient, 1066 when William the conqueror
conquered the inhabitant of England, we start getting England in its common form - time
when system of common law family started to develop. Tells us case law is unwritten, not
meaning cases aren't written down, but unlike a statute book where you can pull up and acct
and see the provisions, case law doesn’t have a place where every rule of law from cases has
been pulled and laid down.
We will learnt to read cases and case analysis, pulling out the rule from the case
Black’s Law Dictionary= ‘ the body of law derived from judicial decisions, rather than from
statutes of constitutions’
The Aotearoa New Zealand Legal System Sources of Law/Ture:
Legislation aka Statutory law
A statute is written law passed by a legislative body
Only Parliament/Pāremata can pass law in New Zealand only parliament has the sovereign
power to make law, statutes are the main source of law in NZ, it is the modern trend, writing
down and codifying laws into statute, trend beginning in early 1900s
Parliament/Pāremata = House of Representatives + The Sovereign [Queen who is
represented in New Zealand by the Governor General]
