Resources for Māori legal research

As well as using print and electronic sources, locating information about customary law will involve consultation within your hapu and iwi. Some of the sources listed on this page are available in the New Zealand Collection of the Library - NZC, which is located, along with the Law Library, on Level 4 of the Library.

Legislation

The Law Library has full sets of New Zealand Statutes and Regulations:

Statutes of New Zealand 1842 onwards [KUQ13.N48]
Reprinted Statutes - RS [KUQ13.N52]
Bound Reprinted Statutes - BRS [KUQ13.N521]
Statutory Regulations of New Zealand [ KUQ17.R85]
Māori land legislation manual : Te puka ako hanganga mo nga ture whenua Māori [KUQ716.7.A27B37]
New Zealand Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) [J941.H2 NZC]

The Index to the New Zealand Statutes [ KUQ.S635] is the easiest printed source for finding relevant legislation on a topic.

Online sources of legislation

New Zealand Legislation - NZ Acts, Bills and Regulations are available free, and downloadable
Relevant Acts, Rules and Regulations from the Te Kooti Whenua Māori | Māori Land Court website

Judicial decisions

Case law on tangata whenua consultation [KUQ1509.A29 1991.C375 Law Library and NZC]
Māori Land Court Minute Books, 1865-1975 [Māori Land Court Minute Books section of NZC].
Decisions of the Māori Appellate Court [KUQ2107.M56N597 Law Library]
Important judgments delivered in the Compensation Court and Native Land Court 1866-1879 - "Fenton's important judgments" [KUQ716.7.A58B47 Law Library and NZC]
Judicial decisions affecting Māoris and Māori land [KUQ716.7.A57J921Law Library]
Tai whati: judicial decisions affecting Māoris and Māori land 1958-83, plus Supplement 1984-85: [KUQ716.7.A58J922 Law Library and NZC]

Online sources for decisions

Individual Māori land blocks can be located on a computer-generated map on Te Puni Kōkiri's Māori Land Information Base (MLIB). The infobase also includes current information from the Māori Land Court on Māori freehold land. This information has been released for public access on the internet after consultation with Māori.

NZLII includes Court of Appeal judgments (1970 onwards), Māori Appellate Court decisions (1962 onwards) and Supreme Court decisions (2004 onwards)
Privy Council decisions (1809 to current) are accessible via the British and Irish Legal Information Institute - BAILII
Summary notes on selected decisions from 1993 onwards are available in the Māori Law Review

Government reports and official documents

The New Zealand Collection has a comprehensive Government Documents Collection which includes:

NZ Gazette [J8.B96], also searchable
British Parliamentary Papers relating to New Zealand [JV1045.G7]
Māori Land Court Minute Books (see description of the collection)
Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives - "AJHR's" [J941.K6] which contain some reports and papers of Government agencies and departments; for example the Report of the Native Land Laws Commission in AJHR (1891) Sess II G-1.

Books, reports and commentary

For a comprehensive bibliography of books and reports held by the Library on Māori law, see the Law Library's Māori Customary Law page. Many items listed in the bibliograhy may also be available in public libraries.

He Pātaka Kupu Ture | Legal Māori Archive - "an unprecedented collection of full text documents that presents, in one accessible place, the bilingual nature of New Zealand’s legal history which has to date been largely overlooked. These documents are all testament to the strong engagement between 19th century Māori and the legal system developed by and imposed by the colonial governments of that time."
The Publications collection of Te Aka Matua O Te Ture | The Law Commission is worth browsing.
Reports of the Waitangi Tribunal Te Ropu Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi are available in full text from the Tribunal's website
The Laws of New Zealand [KUQ25.L415] provides commentary on various aspects of New Zealand law

Journals and newspapers

Use Index New Zealand (INNZ) to locate references to articles in New Zealand newspapers and journals

Māori Law Review [KUQ519.I64M296 Law Library]
Journal of the Polynesian Society, 1879 onwards. [GN2.P783 NZC].

Online journals and newspapers

Index to the Journal of the Polynesian Society covers the period 1892-1991 (vols 1-100)
Māori Law Review
Niupepa Māori - a collection of historic newspapers published 1842 to 1932 and mostly in te reo Māori or bilingual English-Māori
Te Tai Haruru : Journal of Māori Legal Writing - a subscription database; for the University of Waikato, use via the Library's online catalogue is restricted to students and staff with a current Waikato username and password
Te Manutukutuku - the official newsletter of the Waitangi Tribunal | Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi

Web sites