Roger Partridge: Who makes the law?

Picture a country where unelected judges, not elected politicians, make the laws. Where courts rewrite statutes they do not like and reshape long-standing legal rules based on their views of ‘society’s changing values.’ Sound far-fetched? The New Zealand Initiative’s latest report – of which I am the author – shows this scenario is becoming a reality in New Zealand.

“Who Makes the Law? Reining in the Supreme Court” examines how our Supreme Court has strayed beyond its proper constitutional role. The report argues that the Court has adopted a dangerously loose approach to interpreting statutes, sometimes even ignoring Parliament’s clear language. More and more, it is also reshaping common law principles to align with judges’ views of society’s changing values.