Law

New Zealand loses hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue each year because directors can walk away from failing companies without consequence. This research note proposes a German-inspired fix.

The Regulatory Standards Bill represents an important step towards improving the quality of regulation in New Zealand. The Initiative strongly supports the Bill’s objectives of enhancing transparency and accountability in law-making.

Something odd is happening in New Zealand. The government wants to pass a law that would require ministers to explain their regulatory decisions. That is it. ministers would simply need to show how new rules stack up against basic principles like clarity and fairness.

In February this year, I wrote about a surprising decision from New Zealand’s Supreme Court (Absurd: New Zealand courts can now decide on climate change).

Once upon a time, it was the role of parliaments to make laws, governments to execute them, and the role of courts to uphold them.

A one-day submission process on legislation granting incredibly broad powers to the Minister over an extended period is repugnant. It is offensive to New Zealand’s constitutional traditions unless one wishes to wind the clock back to the reign of King Henry VIII.

times are changing, and in few places are they changing as rapidly as in New Zealand. Something radically different is emerging in New Zealand’s legal system.

I still believe in trial by jury.  But not in the efficiency of our justice system.