Aotearoa New Zealand Law Foundations & Method (3rd edition) Book + eBook

Authors:  Stephen Penk, Mary-Rose Russell, Jayden Houghton (Rereahu Maniapoto)

The foundation of legal study in Aotearoa New Zealand is an understanding of our legal systems and sources of law, and legal method – how the law is made and applied.  Aotearoa New Zealand Law: Foundations and Method (3rd edition) is a resource that will prepare students in their first year of law with the skills and understanding to guide them through legal study and into a successful career.

The book is separated into 8 parts and contains 27 chapters which introduce and develop the concepts covered in first-year courses on the legal system, including legal foundations and legal method. The legal foundations topics include introductions to: tikanga Māori and its relationship with state law; intersections between the common and civil law systems, public and private law, and international law; the constitution and our structure of government; and jurisprudence and legal theory. The legal method topics include: case law, judicial reasoning and the doctrine of precedent; statute law and statutory interpretation; the interaction between case law and statute law; and legal language and writing.

The new edition of Aotearoa New Zealand Law: Foundations and Method (formerly published as New Zealand Law: Foundations and Method) has been updated to expand on tikanga Māori in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand’s law degree curriculum, with new contemporary topics, examples and exercises throughout the book.

Preface

Authors

Glossary

Māori–English Translations

PART 1   Aotearoa New Zealand’s Legal Systems

Chapter 1   Legal Systems

Chapter 2  The Legal Systems in Aotearoa New Zealand

Chapter 3  Tikanga

Chapter 4  State Law

Chapter 5  Tikanga Māori and State Law

Chapter 6  Tikanga Māori and State Law: Case Studies

PART 2   Aotearoa New Zealand’s Systems of Justice and Legal Profession

Chapter 7  The Aotearoa New Zealand Systems of Justice

Chapter 8  The Legal Profession and its Terminology

PART 3   Aotearoa New Zealand’s Constitution

Chapter 9   The Aotearoa New Zealand Structure of Government

Chapter 10   The Aotearoa New Zealand Constitution and its Sources

Chapter 11  Fundamental Constitutional Principles

PART 4  Foundations in Practice

Chapter 12  Customary Interests in the Foreshore and Seabed

PART 5   Jurisprudence and Legal Theory

Chapter 13  Designing the State Legal Order: Choices We Make

PART 6   Statutes and Statutory Interpretation

Chapter 14  Legislating in Aotearoa New Zealand

Chapter 15 The Language and Style of Statutes – and the Need for Interpretation

Chapter 16  Approaches to Interpretation

Chapter 17  The Aotearoa New Zealand Approach to Interpretation: The Interpretation Act 1999, the Legislation Act 2019 and Other Statutes

Chapter 18  Common Law Aids to Interpretation

Chapter 19  A Suggested Methodology, and Exercises in Statutory Interpretation

PART 7   Case Law and Analysis

Chapter 21  The Doctrine of Binding Precedent

Chapter 22  Ratio Decidendi and Obiter Dictum

Chapter 23  Analysing Cases

Chapter 24  The Language and Style of Cases

Chapter 25  Developing a Body of Law

PART 8   The Relationship between Statutes and Case Law

Chapter 26  Combining Statute and Case Law

Chapter 27  Legal Writing

Table of Statutes and Regulations

Table of Cases

Index