Law

To make my own position perfectly clear: I am fundamentally ambivalent about whether New Zealand would be better off with a written constitution.

In a world of complex markets with millions of buyers, sellers and products, brands provide orientation. This is what brands contribute to civilisation.

Free trade needs an institutional framework that helps with the practicalities of trade across borders – particularly for when things go wrong.

The two ECB flagship projects of saving the euro and saving Europe’s banks are now both under legal threat. Sometimes “whatever it takes” is not enough if you cannot convince top judges as well.

Admittedly, judgements by the German constitutional court can sometimes be hard to understand. Last week’s ruling to pass on the matter of the European Central Bank’s bond purchases to the European Court of Justice is no exception. It is certainly a decision that is easy to misinterpret.

Germany’s most important decision for this year will not be made by its people in general elections but by eight judges in red robes. And that makes it worth paying attention to this rather obscure and complicated law case.

Victoria’s Premier John Brumby has made an unusual pledge ahead of the state election. If re-elected, his government would commit $6.3 million to installing facilities to stream Victorian court proceedings on the Internet. The public would be able to follow a selection of court cases, most of them criminal, live on the web.

Just as judges are not philosopher-kings, nor are legislative drafters. The terms of a charter are subject to the influence of lobbyists; the judicial interpretation of charters is subject to manipulation by legal experts; and the pervasiveness of a charter is impossible to avoid.