Barrister Gary Judd KC’s complaint to the Regulatory Review Committee has sparked a fierce debate about the place of tikanga Māori – or Māori customs, values and spiritual beliefs – in the law. Judd opposes the New Zealand Council of Legal Education’s plans to make teaching tikanga compulsory in the legal curriculum. Read more

When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand's first-world status was at stake. Read more

Last month’s Legal Research Foundation conference commemorating the Supreme Court’s 20th anniversary could mark a turning point for New Zealand’s highest court. Or at least it should if the Supreme Court justices were listening. Read more

With age comes wisdom – or so it is said. Yet exceptions abound. Read more

Television audiences were granted a rare privilege last week: an extended interview with warmongering President Vladimir Putin to “set the record straight” on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And who better to provide the pulpit of truth for this enlightening exchange? Read more

‘Hard cases make bad law’ is a common legal adage. It means the more worthy a cause, the more tempting it will be for a court to stretch the law to make it fit. Read more

The New Year always brings the promise of a new beginning. But it also confronts us with last year’s headaches. Read more

The demise of the last Government’s Fair Pay Agreement legislation is a cautionary tale for policymakers. Death and taxes are sometimes called the only certainties. Read more

The country’s education establishment has come out swinging. ‘Destructive,’ ‘weird,’ and ‘radical,’ are how the critics have described the Christopher Luxon-led Coalition Government’s education reform agenda. Read more

After six years of a Labour-led Government, the newly sworn-in Government’s policies were always going to shock its opponents. Despite the centre-left and the centre-right parties all pitching their policies to the median voter, profound philosophical differences divide them. Read more