Category: New Zealand
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Andrew Geddis: “Declarations of Inconsistency” under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990
As in the United Kingdom, the question of whether prisoners should be permitted to vote has generated considerable constitutional interest for New Zealand. Largely that is due to the efforts of a long term prisoner and “jailhouse lawyer”, Arthur Taylor, who has mounted something of a one-man campaign against 2010 legislation that stripped the right to vote…
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HRA Watch: Reform, Repeal, Replace? Janet McLean: Giving Effect to International Human Rights Obligations: Possible Alternatives?
Editors’ note: The blog is inviting constitutional lawyers to comment on the UK Government’s proposal to repeal and replace the Human Rights Act. We continue with a post by Janet McLean, Professor of Law and Associate Dean (Research) at the Faculty of Law, University of Auckland. You can read the other contributions in this series here. Posts…
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Dean Knight: Report from New Zealand: MMP Review, Constitutional Review, and Legislative Disclosure
Some constitutional tid-bits from New Zealand from the last wee while. Obvious developments to report on include two significant reviews of New Zealand’s constitutional and electoral arrangements: the Electoral Commission’s independent review of the MMP electoral system; and the Constitutional Advisory Panel’s consideration of constitutional issues. But, sadly, neither of these look likely to led…
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Dean Knight: Tid-bits from New Zealand: an election, a referendum, and a multi-party government policy programme
The new parliamentary year kicked off in New Zealand this week, following an election held late last year in the shadow of the Rugby World Cup. A National-led, multi-party government was returned to power, with John Key continuing as Prime Minister. The National party won a record share of the party vote (47.3%, which translates…
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Richard Ekins: Regulatory responsibility in New Zealand
The Parliament of New Zealand has been invited to consider an important proposal for constitutional change – the Regulatory Standards Bill 2011 (“RSB”) – which aims to improve the quality of lawmaking and hence to reduce the regulatory burden on citizens. The RSB is identical in all save name to the Regulatory Responsibility Bill (“RRB”)…