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About our publications

The Commission has several series of publications, some of which are now historical:

• Reports (NZLC R1 onwards) – Our law reform reports summarise the issues with the law under review, report on the feedback received from consultations and make recommendations for the reform and development of the law. Our reports are presented to the Minister responsible for the Law Commission and to Parliament.
• Issues papers (NZLC IP1 onwards) – These provide detail of the current state of the law under review, discuss the issues with it and invite consultation on questions posed and potential proposals for reform. Sometimes, if a law reform project is large and the issues complex, multiple issues papers may be published. A project may also publish an issues paper following initial public consultation that presents a preferred approach to reform and asks for further feedback. These publications are not presented to Parliament.
• Preliminary papers (NZLC PP1 to PP55) – This series included any paper published preliminary to a final report, but, over time, other publication series replaced it, and the series was discontinued in 2006. These publications were not presented to Parliament.
• Study papers (NZLC SP1 onwards) – Several types of publications have been published under this series in the past, sometimes overlapping with the functions of our other publication series. From 2021 the papers we publish in this series establish a conceptual framework and/or provide background research or educative material on an area of law, sometimes published as the output of a project that was not intended to produce a final report or as a reference paper for a wider project. These publications are not presented to Parliament.
• Miscellaneous papers (NZLC MP1 onwards) – Several types of publications were published under this series in the past, sometimes overlapping with the functions of our other publication series. From 2024, only papers that don’t fit within the definitions of our other publications series are published in this series. These may include ministerial briefings and advice to other government agencies. Ministerial briefings, previously published under their own series, may include further advice following a final report, reporting our findings on a discrete aspect of a review before the publication of a final report or reporting fast-track advice in a manner that would not be possible in our usual full review process. These publications are not presented to Parliament.
• Ministerial briefings (NZLC MB1 onwards) – This series has been discontinued and publications previously published under it can instead be found under the Miscellaneous papers series.
• Corporate information – These are publications relating to the Commission, such as our annual reports, statement of intent/performance expectations and briefings to the incoming minister.

We also sometimes publish supplementary documents, such as summaries, appendices or easy-to-read materials, alongside our papers. These are not included under any publication series but can be found on the webpage of their related project.