Tag: New Zealand
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Andrew Geddis and Sarah Jocelyn: Is the NZ Supreme Court Aligning the NZBORA with the HRA?
The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (NZBORA) and the United Kingdom’s Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) share common constitutional DNA. Both are “parliamentary bills of rights” that eschew a judicial power to invalidate rights-infringing legislation. However, the two rights instruments historically have diverged in a couple of important ways regarding the form of…
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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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Dawn Oliver: Parliamentary Sovereignty in Comparative Perspective
I Parliamentary sovereignty in other countries In this post I defend the absence of judicial strike down powers in the UK by exploring the ways in which other countries besides the UK manage to function well as liberal democracies without courts enjoying strike down powers, and looking at some of the negative aspects of the…
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Dawn Oliver: Parliamentary Sovereignty: A Pragmatic or Principled Doctrine?
Imagine that Parliament has recently passed a provision authorising the indefinite detention without trial of suspected terrorists. The measure was passed during a public panic about terrorism. Public opinion and the press and parliamentarians of the party in government which promoted the legislation were strongly in favour of using such powers. The Home Secretary orders…
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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”)…