Status: Completed
Project overview
This project originally commenced in 1994 at the suggestion of the Honourable Justice Durie, who at that time was Chief Judge of the Māori Land Court. Justice Durie was of the view that some knowledge of Māori custom would greatly assist judges in carrying out their judicial functions.
Status: Completed
Study Paper
Māori Custom and Values in New Zealand Law (NZLC SP9)
The Commission's Study Paper, Māori Custom and Values in New Zealand Law (SP9).
Status: Completed
Unpublished papers by external consultants to the Commission
The genesis of the Māori Customary Law project was a draft paper written by Tā Edward Taihakurei Durie KNZM during his time as the Chairman of the Waitangi Tribunal. He has kindly allowed the Commission to make the paper available here.
- ET Durie “Custom Law” (unpublished draft paper, January 1994)
Several papers were also written by external consultants to inform the Commission’s Māori Customary Law project. As these papers were often requested from the Commission in the years since the Commission's Study Paper Māori Custom and Values in New Zealand Law (SP9) was published in 2001, the authors kindly agreed to allow us to publish them here.
Some of the papers were written only in draft form and were never finalised.
Please note also that these papers were written for, not by the Law Commission and cannot be considered to be the opinion of the Commission.
The papers were:
- Joan Metge “Commentary on Judge Durie’s ‘Custom Law’” (unpublished paper prepared for the Law Commission, 1996, with errata 2020)
- Richard Mulgan “Commentary on Chief Judge Durie’s Custom Law paper from the perspective of a Pākehā political scientist” (unpublished paper prepared for the Law Commission, 1996)
- Michael Belgrave “Māori customary law: from extinguishment to enduring recognition (unpublished paper prepared for the Law Commission, 1996)
- Whaimutu Dewes “Māori custom law: He kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea, e kore e ngaro” (unpublished draft paper prepared for the Law Commission, 1998)
- Joseph Williams “He aha te tikanga Māori” (unpublished draft paper prepared for the Law Commission, 1998)
- David Williams “He aha te tikanga Māori" (unpublished revised draft as at 10 November 1998 of Joseph Williams’ paper of the same name prepared for the Law Commission, 1998, with minor update 2020)