Geoff Parker: From the Lands Case to Treaty Partnership

How a Judicial Observation Became a Constitutional Doctrine

Introduction: How a Legal Interpretation Became a Constitutional Debate

Few court decisions have had a greater impact on New Zealand’s constitutional debate than the 1987 Court of Appeal decision in New Zealand Māori Council v Attorney-General, commonly known as the Lands Case.

Roger Partridge: Lord Cooke’s Indictment

The debate about New Zealand’s Supreme Court has been framed as a question about the current court – its composition, its appointments, its judicial philosophy. This column frames it differently: as a question about what the current court inherited, and from whom. The methodology that produced Ellis has a father. His name is Robin Brunskill Cooke.