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When the New Zealand Supreme Court ruled on Wi Parata v the Bishop of Wellington in 1877, the judges infamously dismissed the relevance of the Treaty of Waitangi. During the past 25 years, judges, lawyers, and commentators have castigated this &“simple nullity&” view of the treaty. The infamous case has been seen as symbolic of the neglect of Maori rights by settlers, the government, and New Zealand law. In this book, the Wi Parata case—the protagonists, the origins of the dispute, the years of legal back and forth—is given a fresh look, affording new insights into both Maori-Pakeha relations in the 19th century and the legal position of the treaty. As relevant today as they were at the time of the case ruling, arguments about the place of Indigenous Maori and Pakeha settlers in New Zealand are brought to light.
David V. Williams takes a fresh look at the notorious Wi Parata case - the protagonists, the origins of the dispute, the years of legal back and forth - affording new insights into both Maori-Pakeha relations in the nineteenth century and the legal position of the Treaty of Waitangi. In 1877, the New Zealand Supreme Court decided a case, Wi Parata v Bishop of Wellington, that centred on the ownership and use of the Whitireia Block, near Porirua. Ngati Toa had given this land to the Anglican Church for a college that was never built. In the course of refusing to inquire into the ownership of the block, the judges dismissed the relevance of the Treaty of Waitangi: 'So far indeed as that instrument purported to cede the sovereignty - a matter with which we are not directly concerned - it must be regarded as a simple nullity.' Over the past twenty-five years, judges, lawyers and commentators have castigated this 'simple nullity' view of the Treaty. The 'infamous' case has been seen as symbolic of the neglect of Maori rights by settlers, government and the law in New Zealand. The factual background to the Wi Parata case, Williams argues, tells us much about nineteenth-century Maori acting as they thought best for their people and about debates in Pakeha jurisprudence over the recognition or rejection of customary Maori rights. Behind the apparent dismissal of the Treaty as a 'simple nullity' lay deep arguments about the place of Maori and Pakeha in Aotearoa New Zealand. Those arguments are as relevant now as they were then
Should Britain form a new union with its old 'Dominions' in Canada, Australia and New Zealand? Are they really our closest allies and relations? And is there any reason why they should want to unite again with us? Great Britain has just left one Union, after years of bitter argument and divisive posturing. But what if the island's future lies in another Union altogether, with some of its former colonial “kith and kin” across the seas? Why be in a Union with your immediate neighbours, when you could instead be in a trans-oceanic super-state with our old friends in Canada, Australia and New Zealand? Welcome to the strange world of the 'CANZUK Union', the name for a quixotic but apparently serious plan to reunify the white-majority 'Dominions' of the British Empire under the flag of low taxes, strong borders and climate change denialism. Artificial Islands tests the idea that Britain's natural allies and closest relations are in these three countries in North America and the Antipodes, through a good look at the histories, townscapes and spaces of several cities across the settler zones of the British Empire. These are some of the most purely artificial and modern landscapes in the world, British-designed cities that were built with extreme rapidity in forcibly seized territories on the other side of the world from Britain. Were these places really no more than just a reproduction of British Values planted in unlikely corners of the globe? How are people in Auckland, Melbourne, Montreal, Ottawa and Wellington re-imagining their own history, or their countries' role in the British Empire and their complicity in its crimes? And do they have any interest in a union with us?
Common Law, Civil Law, and Colonial Law builds upon the legal historian F.W. Maitland's famous observation that history involves comparison, and that those who ignore every system but their own 'hardly came in sight of the idea of legal history'. The extensive introduction addresses the intellectual challenges posed by comparative approaches to legal history. This is followed by twelve essays derived from papers delivered at the 24th British Legal History Conference. These essays explore patterns in legal norms, processes, and practice across an exceptionally broad chronological and geographical range. Carefully selected to provide a network of inter-connections, they contribute to our better understanding of legal history by combining depth of analysis with historical contextualization. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
"Containing cases decided by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania." (varies)
This book examines New Zealand's constitution, through the lens of constitutional realism. It looks at the practices, habits, conventions and norms of constitutional life. It focuses on the structures, processes and culture that govern the exercise of public power – a perspective that is necessary to explore and account for a lived, rather than textual, constitution. New Zealand's constitution is unique. One of three remaining unwritten democratic constitutions in the world, it is characterised by a charming set of anachronistic contrasts. “Unwritten”, but much found in various written sources. Built on a network of Westminster constitutional conventions but generously tailored to local conditions. Proudly independent, yet perhaps a purer Westminster model than its British parent. Flexible and vulnerable, while oddly enduring. It looks to the centralised authority that comes with a strong executive, strict parliamentary sovereignty, and a unitary state. However, its populace insists on egalitarian values and representative democracy, with elections fiercely conducted nowadays under a system of proportional representation. The interests of indigenous Maori are protected largely through democratic majority rule. A reputation for upholding the rule of law, yet few institutional safeguards to ensure compliance.
Across the globe, there are numerous examples of treaties, compacts, or other negotiated agreements that mediate relationships between Indigenous peoples and states or settler communities. Perhaps the best known of these, New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi is a living, and historically rich, illustration of this types of negotiated agreement, and both the symmetries and asymmetries of Indigenous-State relations. This collection refreshes the scholarly and public discourse relating to the Treaty of Waitangi and makes a significant contribution to the international discussion of Indigenous-State relations and reconciliation. The essays in this collection explore the diversity of meanings that have been ascribed to Indigenous-State compacts, such as the Treaty, by different interpretive communities. As such, they enable and illuminate a more dynamic conversation about their meanings and applications, as well as their critical role in processes of reconciliation and transitional justice today.